From Post staff reports
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The NAIA has named Cumberland senior third baseman Matt Greener the 2010 Rawlings-NAIA National Player of the Year.

Greener becomes the first Bulldog to win Player of the Year honors since the awards’ inception in 1983.
He is hitting .380 (5-for-13) with one home run and four RBIs during the World Series and has helped the Bulldogs reach the tournament finals.

During a season that has seen Cumberland go 57-9 and make its 11th World Series, Greener has been an instrumental part of the success. On the year, he led the NAIA in hits (112) and RBIs (95) and tied for first in home runs (26).

In 241 at-bats, the product of Jupiter, Fla., hit .465 with 26 doubles. Greener has played in 64 of the team’s 65 games this season. He has 37 multi-hit games, including 13 of three or more base knocks.

He began the season on an 11-game hitting streak and amazingly, he has recorded a hit in 59 of the 64 games that he has appeared in.

Greener is one of four Bulldogs on the All-America first team, including pitcher Shawn Schaefer and outfielders Troy Frazier and Kris Miller giving CU the most First Teamers of any school this year. Junior RHP Aaron Wilkerson was a second team All-America pick.

LEWISTON, ID – Senior Matt Greener, who earlier in the day was named the NAIA’s Player of the Year, hit a grand-slam home run and drove in six runs as No. 2 Cumberland earned a berth in the championship game of the NAIA World Series with a 13-7 win over Point Loma Nazarene Thursday afternoon.

CU will plays again Thursday for its second national title in a 9 p.m. CT game vs. Lee University, a 10-7 winner of Embry-Riddle in the finals of the losers' bracket. Cumberland needs only one win either tonight or Friday to clinch the championship.

“We are a good offensive team, but we will face some good pitching tonight,” said Cumberland coach Woody Hunt. “We just have to keep doing it. It feels pretty good (to advance to Championship game). We have been here before. We have enough runner-up trophies so want to win this one.”

LEWISTON, ID - No. 2 Cumberland smacked four home runs in winning an 11-9 slugfest over No. 4 Lee at the 54th annual Avista NAIA World Series at LCSC's Harris Field late Tuesday night.

The semifinals are set as Lee plays No. 7 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) Wednesday at 5 p.m. CT while Cumberland faces No. 9 Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.) at 9 p.m. Cumberland remains as the lone undefeated team (3-0) among the remaining four-team field.

"These are two teams that have confidence in their offense," said Cumberland coach Woody Hunt. "Sometimes you get early runs and then they kind of fade away. We both hit and then we had a pitchers duel. I think the key was our five runs after Lee tied us in the first inning (score was 5-5). It was just a good game."

The four Cumberland home runs pushed the team total in the World Series to 10 in three games. That total comes as no surprise. The Bulldogs rank second in the NAIA in homers hit per game (2.1).

Cumberland (56-9) began the scoring frenzy with five runs in the top of the first inning. After two singles and a RBI-double, Kris Miller nailed a three-run home run and the Bulldogs led 4-0. The hit was Miller's third homer in three games in the Series and his 26th of the season.

Troy Frazier followed Miller with a roundtripper of his own, a solo shot, and before an out was retired in the game, Cumberland was up 5-0. Lee starter Jay Bolen was pulled after allowing five runs on five hits.

Lee (51-12) sent 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first inning. Junior Rodriguez put the Flames on the board with a two-run shot, his 16th of the year. Seth Walker had an RBI-single and Edgar Molina drove in a run with a double. The fifth run came home on an RBI-groundout by Taylor Comford.

Cumberland made quick work on the 5-5 tie in the top of the second frame. With one out, Greg Appleton lifted the ball over the fence to give the Bulldogs a 6-5 lead. Frazier walloped his second homer of the game and third in the World Series, this time a three-run hit, to hand Cumberland a 9-5 edge. Max Kautz plated pinch runner Jason Frost on a single to shallow left-center and Cumberland led 10-5.

Lee's Tanner Moore set a single-season record with his 22nd home run, a solo shot in the second inning. That run put the score at 10-6 in favor of Cumberland. Comford notched his second RBI of the game, hitting a sacrifice fly in the third inning. That fly scored Walker, who reached on a double. From there, it looked like Lee was climbing back, down 10-7 heading into the middle innings.

However, Cumberland reliever Robert Post (7-3) had something to say about that. He went 8 1/3 innings in relief of Adam Sprague. Post allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits. He fanned seven batters and walked two. After settling down in the first three innings, Post gave up a single run in the fifth inning on an RBI-single by Comford and a run-producing base hit by Rodriguez in the eighth.

A pair of Lee relievers, Nolan Rudman and Aaron Everett, kept the Cumberland bats at bay after the initial scoring. The Bulldogs plated one run in the fifth courtesy of a RBI-single by Miller. But that was all the scoring for Cumberland after the third inning.

Four Bulldogs had two hits apiece led by the 2-for-4, four-RBI effort by Miller. Frazer also accounted for four RBIs.

GAME NOTES: Cumberland improve to 23-18 in World Series action and won the 2004 title - of the four remaining teams, the Bulldogs hold the most active wins in the World Series... Lee drops to 10-9 in the World Series... There were a combined six home runs (four by Cumberland and two by Lee)... The 20 combined runs scored is a 2010 World Series high...

SCHAEFER HURLS A 5-HIT GEM

LEWISTON, ID -- Shawn Schaefer established Cumberland's all-time single season record for wins in a season with an 8-1 masterpiece over Oklahoma City Monday.

Schaefer threw a complete game five-hitter, striking out 11 with no walks. He improves to 14-0 on the season and sends the Bulldogs into the Final Four of the 54th annual Avista-NAIA World Series at Harris Field.

The senior lefty was backed by four homeruns, including two bombs off the bat of rightfielder Kris Miller -- his 24th and 25th of the season.

CU (55-9) advances to the finals of the winners' bracket Tuesday night against the winner of the Lewis Clark - Lee University game.