COLUMBIA, Mo. - Sammey Bunch left Mid-Missouri a star on the softball diamond for the Fatima Lady Comets and returns this weekend a star for the University of Northern Iowa, as she and the Panthers take on Iowa State at 1 p.m. Friday on ESPN3 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's Columbia Regional, hosted by No. 8 seed Missouri.
A .580 career hitter at Fatima who set a state record with 71 hits her senior season, when the Comets took second in MSHSAA's Class 2 state tournament, Bunch has continued her prowess at the plate in Cedar Falls.
The redshirt senior's name is all over the record books, and she repeated as Missouri Valley Conference player of the year last week.
"It's been awesome to watch her grow," Northern Iowa coach Ryan Jacobs said Tuesday, referring to the "flashes of greatness" he saw in Bunch on her visit. "In her years here, she's just played at that high level. There hasn't been a gear that isn't engaged every single time she takes the field, whether it's practice or a game."
This season, the power-hitting shortstop is batting .441, has an on-base percentage of .575 and an eye-popping offense-plus-slugging of 1.575, leading the team not just in hits, doubles, triples, home runs and walks, but also in stolen bases, where she's 7-of-7 this year.
"It's really incredible to be able to say I've played with the best softball player that's been here, and I'm really quite privileged to be able to learn from her," Adara Opiola, the team's only other senior, said Tuesday.
As things come full circle, Northern Iowa is making its third postseason appearance in program history an hour from where Bunch grew up, in Frankenstein, and from Fatima High School.
"It's really special for me to be able to get to play so close to home, get people from home, from Fatima High School to come watch that really haven't got to over the years," Bunch said Tuesday. "It's a really special and humbling moment for me, for sure."
Jacobs promised Bunch a game as close to home as possible before she graduated. The Panthers scheduled an appearance in Missouri's home tournament in 2020, he said, what would have been her senior season, but it fell through. Something conflicted in the schedule, so Jacobs asked Bunch if she was OK with not going, and she said yes.
After the coronavirus pandemic canceled the season less than two weeks later, Bunch used the extra year of eligibility to return. She and her teammates earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, and now one of the best hitters in Division I softball will make her tournament debut in front of family and friends, so close to home.
"I'm super happy that it worked out this way, that she gets to play in her own backyard, her family and everybody will be able to be there and see her," Jacobs said. "You know, it's just, it's funny how things work out that way, her being unselfish and doing that for our team last year, in return she gets this."
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Apart from the shortened 2020 season, Bunch's batting average has increased every year: she hit a solid .325 as a freshman, .341 as a sophomore and .395 as a junior while clubbing a then-program record 17 home runs on the way to her first Missouri Valley Conference POTY honors. She hit .328 with seven home runs in 20 games in 2020, and her .441 average heading into this weekend is five percentage points off the single-season program record set by Lindsay Wood in 2002.
Before all of that, though, there was a fateful encounter with a tee.
Bunch arrived in Cedar Falls primarily as a contact hitter, something she had a lot of success doing in high school. But she had some adjustments to make before she could become the program's career leader in home runs and one of the best hitters to ever suit up for the Panthers. The tee got the best of her in the team's first week of fall practice.
"She couldn't hit anything off of the ground," Jacobs said of that fall in 2016. "It was ground ball, ground ball, ground ball, and to see her develop now into the power hitter that she is and watch her take (batting practice) and be able to control her swing so much, I think back to that kid that freshman who was almost crying because she couldn't get the ball even to be a line drive off of the tee. It's pretty funny."
Bunch set one goal for herself coming in as a freshman: find a way into the starting lineup.
She started all 52 games at shortstop in 2017, and has racked up 190 starts in her career with the Panthers. Meeting her goal out of the gate and adjusting to hit the ball in the air - "First day off the tee was a little rough," she admitted - meant she exceeded her own expectations a while ago.
"Looking at what I've accomplished throughout my career is just unreal," Bunch said, "and I really just give thanks to all the people around me pushing me to be my best and really making sure I get the most out of every day."
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Iowa State is the second seed in the region, and has split season series against both the host Tigers and Panthers. In the second game of the season, the Cyclones downed UNI 12-2 in six innings, but two months later, the Panthers returned the favor, run-ruling Iowa State 10-2 in six innings.
Bunch hit 3-for-3 with a walk in the second game. She blasted a leadoff homer in the first inning to open the scoring and roped a three-run triple to right to walk the game off and cap a two-out rally.
With the power in their lineup (UNI led the Valley with 57 homers, 10 more than the second-place team, as well as runs per game), the Panthers have hopes of advancing past just Friday's first game, and might have a leg up on Iowa State. MVC pitcher and newcomer of the year Kailyn Packard did not throw against the Cyclones in either game.
Wins like that helped bolster UNI's at-large resume, but they still weren't sure. Jacobs had the team watch the selection show together on the advice of Southern Illinois head coach Kerri Blaylock.
"Her advice to me was, 'I've let the girls go home, and we've been disappointed and they weren't together. I've let the kids go home and we got our names called and we were excited but we weren't together,'" he said. "She said your key is to be together, no matter what happens."
An eight-hour bus ride home from the MVC Tournament in Evansville made the wait agonizing, since the Panthers lost to the Salukis in the title game. Opiola said she "clung to" Bunch during the watch party.
"One minute, I was like, 'Oh we got it, we're gonna get in,'" Bunch said, "and the next minute I would question myself, going, 'Are we really gonna get in? Do I want to get my hopes up?' My career could be over and I don't even know it."
But less than 20 minutes into the selection show Sunday night, the Panthers got something to cheer about.
"It was a really special moment for us to be able to witness that together and hear our name called at the same time, and just the absolute pure joy of doing that with one of my best friends was unmatchable, really," Opiola said.
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Wherever this postseason goes for the Panthers, Bunch has left an indelible mark on the program and the MVC.
"I've learned so many things from her," Opiola said. "We talk softball constantly, we watch softball and we talk about pitchers, we talk about plays and it's really been quite an experience, and I know she's over there blushing because she can hear me, but she has taught me so much."
With a few hits this weekend, Bunch can lock up program records for a season and a career in batting average and on-base percentage.
Two runs will give Bunch a single-season record in runs scored (56). Her 21 homers this season and 58 in her career are both program records, and her career mark ties the MVC record for home runs. Her slugging percentage for a season (1.000) and career (.734); career runs batted in (181) and runs scored (196) are also program records, and her 196 runs scored is a historical mark for the MVC.
"You've put in the time and the hard work to get yourself here, now it's a matter of staying sharp, using your mind, using your planning, using your preparation to help you. But that's just the way she's approached it every day," Jacobs said. "She's a competitor. She's passionate about the game: if she's not playing it, she's watching it, she's talking about it, it's ingrained in her family.
"(Softball) is not who she is but it's what she likes to do. And it's been really special to watch her development."