Minor League player from North Carolina has historic day with 4 home runs, 9 RBI

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (WTVD) -- A professional baseball player from North Carolina had a historic performance in Missouri.

Hogan Windish hit 4 home runs and drove in all 9 of the Arkansas Travelers' runs Tuesday night against the Springfield Cardinals. Both teams are in the Texas League of Minor League Baseball's AA division.

Windish was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He played high school baseball at Ashe County High School and then became a standout hitter at UNC Greensboro. He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 7th round of the 2022 MLB Draft.

Interestingly, Windish had been in something of a slump before the historic breakout Tuesday night.

He had not homered since May 21 and had gone deep just once since homering twice on April 9. In the 58 games he had played in so far this year, he had hit 3 home runs and had a .205 batting average with 19 RBIs.

But Tuesday night, Windish went off.

He walked in the first inning, hit a grand slam to left-center in the third off Edwin Nuñez for a 4-1 lead, hit two-run homers to right-center in the fifth against Wilfredo Pereira and in the seventh off Benito Garcia, and added a solo homer to center in the ninth against Leonardo Taveras.

Since RBIs became an official stat in 1920, only one other person has hit 9 RBIs in a single game and accounted for all of his team's runs. That was Mike Greenwell of the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 2, 1996. However, it took Greenwell 10-innings to get those 9 RBI.

The most RBI ever for a single game is 12, and sixteen MLB players have had games with 10 or more RBI. In each of those instances though, other players on the team also drove in runs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.