CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Northern Iowa redshirt senior Sammey Bunch broke her own single-season home run record Wednesday in the Panthers' 10-2 win against Iowa State.
Bunch (Fatima High School), the reigning Missouri Valley Conference softball player of the week, hit a solo home run in the first inning, her 18th of the season. That breaks her Northern Iowa single-season home run record 17 set during the 2019 season.
In the game, Bunch went 3-for-3, hitting a bases-clearing triple to win the game by run-rule in the fifth inning.
In 34 games this season, Bunch has a .480 batting average (48-for-100) with 43 runs scored, 42 RBI and 28 extra-base hits, to go with 25 walks and 11 hit-by-pitches. Her 18 home runs rank third nationally in NCAA Division I, and she also ranks in the top 25 in RBI, batting average, total bases (115) and on-base percentage (.618). Her slugging percentage of 1.150 is second in the nation behind Oklahoma's Jocelyn Alo.
For her career, Bunch has 52 home runs, just six shy of the MVC career home run record held by Creighton's Amy Baker (2010-13).
Northern Iowa (20-14) will wrap up a three-game series today at Loyola-Chicago.