Reporter
Competitive is the word used to describe CSU Bakersfield senior softball player Sydney Raeber by her coaches and teammates.
“I feel like it is such a competitive sport,” said Raeber. “I not only get to compete with myself [or] against everyone else, but I get to compete with 18 other girls.”
CSUB softball head coach Crissy Buck-Ziegler said they could be debating about nothing and Raeber would be competitive about something.
However, Raeber isn’t only competitive with herself on the field but off the field as well.
For Raeber, getting into the nursing program was her ultimate goal, but little did she know that was a whole different ball game. She applied but was not invited to the program.
She wasn’t set back by the change of course, but made Raeber find a different game plan.
With one more year to go, Raeber aspires to stay in the lines of being a nurse but decided to change her major to human biological science.
“It’s just the closest thing to a nursing major, and the closest thing to all my classes that would line up” said Raeber, but she describes that these classes are going good and would help her to become a nurse or nurse practitioner.
Buck-Ziegler said if her life was on the line, she would trust Raeber.
Teammate and sophomore outfielder Julea Cavazos and some of her other teammates support her career path and often find themselves calling her “Nurse Sydney.”
Along with the struggle to become a nurse, Raeber has also had struggles on the field.
“I was constantly fighting who I was and who I wanted to be, and I wasn’t playing to my full potential” said Raeber. “But now, I know who I am, and I know who I want to be.”
Raeber is from Hanford, Calif. She went to Hanford High where she was named team MVP all four years with a batting average of .576 with a total of 16 doubles,two triples, six homeruns, 16 runs batted in, and scored 35 runs. Her freshman year at CSUB she had the second most runs batted in with 11, with a .233 batting average and made PCSC Commissioner’s Honor Roll with 3.68 grade point average.
Her sophomore year, she ranked top five on the team with multiple categories including a .326 on-base percentage and 16 runs batted in. Raeber entered her junior year being the leader in every category and ended her season to be the first on the team to have 47 hits and 23 runs batted in, with the second highest batting average .343.
“You can’t teach someone to thrive in pressure, and she thrives in pressure” said coach Buck-Ziegler. Coach described that this is the reason why she is so great in the number four spot when batting.
Raeber has come along way since she first started at CSUB her freshman year and is content with all the work she has put in.
“I think I am ready to move on because I know what I’ve done here. I know I made an impact on this program and this school,” she said.
Raeber pitches and plays in the outfield for the Roadrunners. She finished the regular season with a 0.81 earned run average in relief. She currently has a batting average of .321, but is hitting .333 against Western Athletic Conference teams. She ended the season with 45 hits leading the Roadrunners in the most runs batted in with 21.
Raeber has made the WAC All-Tournament Team the last two years, but this year she only hopes to leave it all on the field in the last of her final games at the WAC Tournament.
“We are getting in our extra reps and making sure we are physically ready. I feel mentally that’s where we are all preparing,” said Raeber.
The Roadrunners clinched the number three seed and will play against number two seed University of Missouri-Kansas City in the first round of the tournament on May 14 at 1 p.m. in Seattle, Wash.
Although Raeber has one more year here before she graduates with her bachelor’s degree in human biological science, she doesn’t plan to stay away from her teammates and the game.
Buck-Ziegler expects nothing more than for her to be a big part of the program next year. Raeber said jokingly that even if she’s not on the team next year, she will still be standing in the outfield making sure the girls are doing their jobs.
