Gibsons' Mitch Rainer recently closed out his college baseball career with his final season at Cumberland University in Tennessee.
The Bulldogs finished the season ranked 14th nationally in the NAIA Baseball Coaches' post-season top 25 poll
The Bulldogs posted a 41-19-1 overall record, winning the Mid-South Conference regular season championship with a 19-2 mark. The club posted its 23rd 40-win season in the last 28 years and won its 20th regular season title in 30 seasons as a four-year institution under head coach Woody Hunt.
CU reached the NAIA Championship opening round for the fourth time in five seasons, going 2-2 in Joliet, Ill., with a pair of losses to Judson [Ill.] University. Hunt posted his 1,400th victory at Cumberland in the first round of the Mid-South Conference Championships.
It was a good experience. I met lots of people who have now become good friends, said Rainer, who has come back to the Sunshine Coast for the summer. Coach Hunt was a big role model and is a baseball coach that everyone should see and learn from at least once in their lifetime.
Rainer also achieved some personal success this season, as he and teammate Matthew Sedgwick were both named NAIA Daktronics Scholar-Athletes.
In order to be eligible, student-athletes must be juniors or seniors academically and maintain a 3.50 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. The NAIA honoured a total of 266 student-athletes from around the nation.
Rainer finished with a 3.51 GPA in Health and Human Performance.
To be recognized both athletically and academically is really rewarding, he said. I have no regrets at all of the four years. I put everything into it and got everything out of it. I played for four years and got a great education.
Rainer said he has been blessed to have some amazing coaches in his life, first with John Haar and the North Shore Twins and coach Hunt at Cumberland.
Their baseball knowledge, desire to achieve greatness and dedication is simply amazing. To be around both of these men has meant a great deal to me, Rainer said. It's pretty amazing to have hall of fame coaching like that.
Now back on the Coast for the summer, Rainer plans to reconnect with family and friends, work and prepare for a 400-hour internship in the health field in order to complete his degree.
I hope to complete something on the Coast, but if not, then in the Lower Mainland, he said. It's been a great four years, but it's also nice to come home.
