SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A total of 201 non-perishable food items were collected in the first-ever Home Runs for Hunger competition this past Friday at John Smith Field.

Home Runs for Hunger, which is a competition-based food drive sponsored by Sacramento State’s student booster group Green Army, aims to collect canned, boxed, vacuumed sealed and nonperishable food items.

Five different groups participated in the event, and each of those groups collected non-perishable items. After Friday’s baseball game which featured the Hornets taking on Louisiana Tech, each group captain participated in a wiffle ball home run derby in center field.

Each captain had seven swings at a home run. The winner of the home run derby was awarded the grand total of all the non-perishable foods to be donated in their group’s name to the charity/non-profit of their choice.

The Sacramento State volleyball, gymnastics and women’s soccer squads, as well as the Hornet men’s hockey club team and the Residence Hall Association (RHA) were the five groups that participated in the event. Junior setter Hannah Hettinga hit five home runs and won the competition for the volleyball team, which donated the lump sum of the canned and non-perishable food items to the Wellspring Women’s Center in Sacramento.