ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The last two innings of the College of Saint Benedict softball team’s game against Wash U were a wild ride that ended with a bases-clearing double from Grace Gilmore in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Bennies the win.
But before things got crazy in the top of the seventh in that March 6 game in Tucson, Ariz., one thing had been consistent for CSB all day: Hannah Sundem’s bat. She may not have been the hero with the walkoff double, but she helped set her team up to come out on top – even as the Bears kept clawing their way back into the game.
Sundem – who finished her abbreviated first season with the Bennie softball program with 11 hits – recorded four hits against Wash U alone. She hit for the cycle and reached base in all five at-bats to help Saint Benedict hold on, and eventually come away with a three-hour win over the Bears.
In the first inning, Sundem hit an RBI double, and then came around to score to put the Bennies up 2-0. In the third she singled to left field and advanced on an error, but was stranded at third base. With her team already up 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth, Sundem hit an RBI triple, and later came around to score on an RBI single from Sheridan Glashan to make it a 6-1 game. Sundem hit the second home run of her college career in the sixth inning to give the Bennies a 7-2 lead that seemed insurmountable.
The Bears made their comeback in the seventh and tied the game to send it to extras. In her fifth and final at-bat of the game in the bottom of the eighth, Sundem didn’t record a hit, but she did draw a walk, and she was one of three runs that scored on Gilmore’s double to lift CSB to a 10-9 win.
Sundem finished the season third on the team with a .355 batting average and an impressive .710 slugging percentage. She had 11 hits – including three doubles, two homers and a triple – and sent in seven RBIs. After recording just two hits in the first five games of her collegiate career, Sundem finished with nine in the final six, including a 4-for-4 performance against Wash U and a 2-for-3 showing with three RBIs in a win over Franklin. She also sent in the winning run with an RBI single in what would end up being the team’s final game of the season, a 1-0 win over Pitt.-Bradford.
