On Saturday, May 10th, Choate baseball history repeated itself in the form of Sam Wheeler ’08 hitting three home runs in three consecutive at-bats. This ties the record of Eddie Kuchar who with three home runs in three at-bats in 1973 against Deerfield. With these three home runs, Sam brought his total home runs up to nine for the season, one behind the Choate record held by current major leaguer Chris Denorfia ’98.
Choate went up to Kent on May 10, in a game that they won 7-2, with Wheeler ’08 driving in five RBIs. Wheeler described his first at-bat as a two-run homerun to right center going over the highway which boarders the field. Wheeler’s next at-bat was a solo homerun described as, “...Curveball, homerun left center,” followed by another two-run homerun to the same spot in left center. Hitting three homeruns in three at-bats against this team that Wheeler ’08 described as, “a solid competitor. We consider it a good win and a good day when we beat them.” Wheeler described his at-bats that game as, “I was locked in, I was seeing the ball as a beach ball. I went to my second at-bat, I was just thinking ‘Don’t strike out, don’t strike out’, and I got a curve ball and I hit it. At my third at-bat I was not even thinking.” Wheeler said that that he felt amazing after hitting his third homerun, and stated that, “I’d never had that feeling before, I didn’t really know what I could do.” Wheeler ’08 said also that his three-homerun game is something he is definitely going to tell his kids about, stating that it will be a “…great story to tell.”
Coach Tom Yankus attributes Wheeler’s homerun ability to his bat skills. Yankus said, “Most of the guys’ swings is 75-80 (Mph), his (Wheeler’s) is at 100. That is an incredible amount of bat speed that allows him to hit the ball 400 feet.” When Wheeler hit his third homerun, Coach Yankus said, “There was just this amazing feeling that he could do no wrong…” Coach Yankus also said that with Wheeler’s third homerun, he felt it took him right back to the seventies. Wheeler’s slugging percentage was .905 for the season to which Coach Yankus said, “…he just doesn’t hit singles, he hits doubles and homeruns.” As to whether another performance of this magnitude will happen again in the near future, Coach Yankus stated that, “It is such a rare thing in high school ball… it could happen someday, but the fact that it took this many years for it happen again says something about the rarity of the feat.” However, Wheeler thinks that it will happen again soon, seeing a possible three-homerun game from Nolan Stewart ‘09 next season.
