Hall of Fame
What better way to close out a career than to lead your team to the NAIA World Series? How about hitting a home run at the same event in your last collegiate game? That's the feat Baumgartner performed in putting an exclamation point to not only his All-American senior campaign where he batted .365 with a team-high 61 RBI's, but to an illustrious three-year mark as a catcher on the varsity level. All he did during that time was to set Top Ten career marks in batting average (.331, 9th on the all-time list), runs batted in (183, 4th), doubles (43, 6th) and home runs, where he fell just three behind the mark of 38 set by another Hall-of-Famer, Kurt Miller. In terms of seasonal records, the three-run home run in that finale gave him 15 for the season, which still ranks fourth on the all-time list. His 20 doubles and 71 RBI's in the year previous to that when he batted .326 also still rank high in the annals of CSF baseball history. With numbers like that, it was only coincidental that he be named to the All-Conference Team three straight years, including his honorary '83 campaign, where he was also selected to the All-District and All-Area teams prior to being recognized as the sixth of 13 CSF baseball All-Americans. Nonetheless, to this day, it is the CSF Alumni Association Scholar-Athlete Award that Baumgartner covets the most, an accolade he gained for authoring a 3.79 grade point average as a Management and Marketing major.
