« Baseball 2012

Robbie Buller

School
Houston Baptist
Position
Pitcher
Major
Accounting

Classroom

Buller is on pace to graduate this May with a 3.8 GPA in Accounting. He was named to the Great West Conference All-Academic team the past two years and as a sophomore he received first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District honors. Buller plans to enter the investment banking field after finishing a graduate program.

Character

Buller leads by example and by advising younger players through his own good and bad experiences as a player, a student and a person. Baseball is a team sport played mostly individually on the field, but he tries to incorporate mental team values of encouragement, selflessness, motivation and work ethic. Buller was not heavily recruited out of high school, and HBU was the only Division I school to offer him a scholarship. However, when he arrived on campus, he “amped up” his work ethic to eventually become a far better player than he ever thought he could be. He has also overcome a shoulder injury that sidelined him from throwing for almost the entire fall of 2010. He was relentless in his rehab program, both physically and mentally, for more than a year. He has come back from the injury throwing much harder (mid-90s) than he ever did before. He’s now being heavily scouted as a pitcher after pitching fewer than two innings so far in his collegiate career.

Community

Buller has volunteered for Operation Interdependence the last three years, preparing care packages and writing notes to send to troops stationed overseas. He has also been involved with Husky Haulers, which helps incoming freshmen move into their dorms.

Competition

Buller made the Great West Conference first team as a designated hitter in 2010 and 2011. As a junior, he set the HBU single-season home run record with 16 and is tied for third on the Huskies’ all-time list — just seven shy of the school record. He ranks seventh all-time in RBIs, tied for fourth in doubles and tied for fifth in hits. Last year Buller hit .298 with 16 home runs, 16 doubles, 55 RBIs and 57 runs. As a sophomore, he hit .353 with 10 home runs and 57 RBIs. Last summer, he played for the Alaska Goldpanners and hit .429, the second-highest average in team history on a squad that has seen more than 1,200 players selected in the Major League Baseball draft.