BETHANY, Oklahoma (April 15, 1997) - There it was, in all its hyphenated glory, the boxscore line they had talked about for a year: 

Sundlie cf-lf-rf-1b-3b-c-p-2b-ss.

"If you're going to play a lot of 'em," Todd Sundlie reasoned Thursday, "why not one time play 'em all, just to say you've done it." 

Sundlie cf-lf-rf-1b-3b-c-p-2b-ss. Well. As much as they wanted to, for history's sake, no one literally printed that. 

"Even our computer wouldn't accept him at all the positions he played," Lubbock Christian University head coach Daren Hays said. "It put him at the first two positions and wouldn't list the other ones. So it blew our computer."

One man, one game, nine positions

Sundlie, a 5-foot-8 sophomore, already had played six positions in his first season-plus for the Chaparrals. Player and coach vowed before Sundlie's carreer was over to go for the whole banana -- one man, one game, nine positions. Tuesday looked like the perfect time. Southern Nazarene seemed like the perfect guinea pig -- a first-year program with an 8-28 record. 

By the time Sundlie got around to trying a new position, the Chaps were going to be ahead 14-1 anyway. Turns out, the Redskins saved a decent arm for the third game of the four-game series. Turns out, the game was a 5-1 game. 

"With the pressure, it wasn't just a joke," Sundlie said. "Since we weren't ahead by much, I had to play each position just as good as the other players do. I didn't want to go out there and screw it up for one inning."

A brief appearance on the mound

Sundlie played an inning apiece at the first six positions. Since this was a doubleheader and a seven-inning game, Sundlie performed the last three duties in the seventh. 

Let's clear our throat and point out that Sundlie was dispatched to the mound starting the seventh, closer style. Well, he got off the pitching thing in a hurry. 

"My pitching?" Sundlie asked. "I got ripped."

"The only hard hit the whole series," one teammate groaned.

"The ball was dented," another hooted.

One man, one task, one double, one merciful hook. Sundlie could see the finish line. It was on to second base for noe out and over to shortstop for the last two. The bullpen even kept his runner from scoring. 

"It was a tight game, so it wound up being not the best time to experiment," Hays said. "He's got such good hands, he did a pretty good job at all of 'em. He's so small, first base would be tough for him."

Under normal circumstances, Sundlie plays center field for LC, the nation's seventh-ranked NAIA team. He had sampled everything in college except pitcher, catcher and first base. And he pitched a few games in high school at Ozark, Mo. 

The catching part came back to him -- from high school, Little League, somewhere -- after handling a few fastballs. But first base... first... Sundlie looked quizzical. 

"That's probably the first time I ever played first," he said.

The Redskins tested him immediately. Someone put down a bunt, the man of many gloves charged, scooped it and applied the tag. Simple enough. 

The nice thing is Sundlie pinwheeled through all nine positions and never made an error. The Chaps held their breath and got their victory, 5-1. Sundlie got to fulfill a career goal. 

And who knows, someday when the scoreboard is really heading toward 14-1, maybe Sundlie would like to try again. 

"Sure," he said, straight out. "If the chance is there. We've got plenty more games."