Anchorage’s Coen Niclai turned back the clock on Tuesday by turning on couple pitches to become the first Alaskan to hit two home runs in a NCAA Division I game in a quarter-century.

The Arizona State University catcher launched a moon shot in the fifth inning and crushed grand slam in the seventh to help the Sun Devils rally from a seven-run deficit and beat Grand Canyon 12-8 at GCU Ballpark in Phoenix.

Niclai, a sophomore eight-hole hitter out of Service High, finished 2-for-5 with five RBIs. He is batting .310 with four home runs and 15 RBIs in 14 games.

The last time an Alaskan hit two bombs in a D1 game was in 2000, when Juneau’s Rob Conway blasted pair of dingers against Air Force in his first game with Iowa State University.

Conway went on to hit 10 homers that season and remains the only Alaskan to mash double-digit taters in a D1 season.

Conway leads all college players from Alaska with 23 career homers – 14 at Iowa State and nine at Mendocino College. Kenai’s Paul Steffensen is second with 21 homers.

Niclai, a 6-foot-2, 215-pounder, increased his career totals to five home runs and 19 RBIs in 37 games. He’s hit four homers in 14 games at ASU compared to one jack in 23 games as a freshman at the University of Oregon.

Four of his 13 hits this season have come on homers, fueling a .595 slugging percentage, which puts him on pace to break the state record of .577 that was set in 1987 former Service slugger Tim Stanley at Arkansas Little Rock.

NCAA Division I Baseball

Most HRs SEASON
10 – Rob Conway, Iowa State 2000
7 – Tim Stanley, Arkansas-Little Rock 1987
7 – Cliff Anderson, Chapman 1992
6 – Jackson Coleman, North Dakota State 2002
5 – Tyler Hasbrouck, Coastal Carolina 2003
5 – Willy Homza, Brown 2019
4 – Rob Conway, Iowa State 2001
4 – Levi Robinson, TCU 2002
4 – Joe Kohan, Nevada 2012
4 – Coen Niclai, Arizona State 2026
Source: Alaska Sports Report