North Oconee senior, Mercer baseball commit notches two grand slams in same game

It's normal for North Oconee baseball senior KJ Moon to knock a pitch out of the park, so the first grand slam wasn't really a surprise.

The second one, however, was.

"Honestly, I didn't even know that the second one was a grand slam too until they had told me," KJ, a two-way player, said. "You definitely don't see that happening very often, so it was something really cool to experience and go through. I mean, many people don't get to hit a home run, let alone a grand slam, let alone two of them in the same game."

His parents, Cassy and Mark Moon, who were sat off to the side as they always are for their only child's games, didn't realize it either.

"I didn't know it was two grand slams," Cassy said. "Somebody sent me a text and said, 'Two grand slams?' and I was like 'Oh?!' The first at-bat, quite frankly, I turned to my friend that was sitting next to me and I said, 'If he would've struck out on that at-bat I would've been completely happy.' He went a lot of pitches, his swings looked good and he fouled a lot off.' It was like seventh or eighth pitch (of the) at-bat."

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The Titans ended up winning the Friday night game against Mt. Pisgah Christian, 20-10, thanks to Moon's two grand slams.

"The first one was just kind of the game was playing out and he hit it, gave us a lead, got us back in it because we were down," head coach Jay Lasley said. "KJ has very good juice, so it's a matter of, if he gets a good pitch, if he gets a good swing, he can leave the yard at any time. It's never a surprise when he launches a ball, but it's just about him staying within himself, taking a good swing and good things can happen.

"As far as the second one, that one was a little bit different because we were up in the game and we were at a point where we'd really started substituting a lot. I actually walked to the on-deck circle and Ethan Jarvis was on deck and I told him, I said, 'Ethan, if he goes big fly right here, I'm going to start making substitutions. The funny part was, the fact that as soon as KJ hits the ball and takes the swing, Ethan started to walk away because he knew he wasn't going to hit. We laughed about that afterward."

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Lasley said they've had two grand slams in a game before, but from two different players. Friday was the first time they've had one player hit two grand slams in a game.

Moon has been playing baseball for 14 years and is committed to continue his career at Mercer in the fall. He plays as a right-handed pitcher and a first baseman for the Titans. He said when he gets asked if he'd rather do one or the other, he can never decide: "I just don't want to give either one up right now." Mercer is letting him continue down both paths, one of the many reasons he chose to stay in-state and become a Bear.

His dad, Mark, has been a big part of his journey. Never a baseball player himself, he's helped KJ grow and develop into the elite talent he is today. KJ said his dad knows his swing like the back of his hand after throwing to him for over a decade. In fact, after Friday's game, which Mark filmed, they went home and immediately started breaking down what worked on the garage television.

"Every day is an opportunity to get better, no matter if you're like Shohei Ohtani or you're somebody like me who's just a senior in high school trying to lead a team," KJ Moon said.

Sara Tidwell covers Athens-area high school sports and University of Georgia athletics for The Athens Banner-Herald. Contact her at stidwell@gannett.com and follow her @saramtidwell on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Mercer baseball commit notches two grand slams in one game