Austin Christensen had every reason to think he'd enjoy a successful college baseball career at the University of Nebraska following his glittering high school days at Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

He helped Kennedy win the Class 4A state title in 2010 and broke numerous school records as a hitter and left-handed pitcher, most notably with 42 home runs and28 victories on the mound, and was named the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year in 2011 after batting .555.

He got off to a fast start at Nebraska as a freshman in the fall of 2011 as one of the team's top hitters, but then came the arm problems that eventually led to Tommy John surgery and robbed him of two full years with the Cornhuskers.

Christensen experienced some mild success at Nebraska in 2014 and 2015 as a hitter and pitcher, but he never regained all of his skills and realized he probably never would.

Christensen, 22, could have returned to Nebraska this season as a fifth-year senior with another year of eligibility, but he carefully weighed all the pros and cons and decided it was time to follow a new path in life. As a result, he left Nebraska and transferred this fall to the University of Northern Iowa, where he plans to finish his education and become a teacher and baseball coach.

Christensen is engaged to Kristin Rogers, his long-time girlfriend from Cedar Rapids who has been a reporter for KWWL-Channel 7 since June, and he's put college baseball into his memory bank. Northern Iowa does not have a varsity baseball team, so his college career is over.

"I'm happy with my decision and don't have any regrets," he said Monday.

"I tried to really think of everything that went into my life at Nebraska. I really enjoyed playing there. I have nothing but good things to say about the university, the baseball program and everybody.

"I don't want people to think I wasn't enjoying it, because I was," he said. "I was having fun. I was just at a point in my life where I knew what I wanted to do and baseball just wasn't the same for me.

"I obviously had some tough years with the Tommy John. I missed two straight years and that really got me thinking: This can end at any point and you have to be ready. You have to have a Plan B. Everything about it just pointed me in this direction."

Christensen, a 6-foot-5 southpaw, had a 3-0 record and 4.95 ERA in 20 innings for Nebraska in 2014 as a red-shirt sophomore. He also hit .250 in 32 games with 15 RBIs that year.

He had an 0-0 record and 2.45 ERA in 14.2 innings last season and hit .264 with five RBIs. He knew that would be his last year with the Cornhuskers and was ready to pursue his goals of becoming a teacher and coach.

He's living at home in Cedar Rapids with his family, working part-time at The MAC and commuting to Cedar Falls three days a week for classes. He'll get an early start on his coaching career this summer as the head coach of the Cedar Rapids Washington sophomore baseball team, along with some duties with the varsity program.

"I'm excited about that, to get into the coaching side of things," he said.

Christensen's younger brother, Drew, is a promising sophomore at Washington and is ticketed to play for the varsity this year. Their older brother, Chad, is a farmhand with the Minnesota Twins and is living in Lincoln, Neb., where he also played baseball at the University of Nebraska and likes to train during the off-season.

Christensen throws batting practice to his younger brother at Perfect Game and also pitches to his older brother when Chad visits Cedar Rapids, but he has no pangs about sacrificing his final year of college ball with the Cornhuskers.

"I was totally fine with that," he said. "I really don't have any more desire to be playing on the baseball field. It was an easy decision, but I did make sure I made the right decision.

"My arm never really recovered from Tommy John surgery. I really don't have anything left."

Christensen wishes he could have been more successful at Nebraska, but knows that injuries are an unfortunate part of the game.

"I had extremely high expectations," he remarked. "I really had a great fall my freshman year. I was up at the top two or three in batting average for the whole team, I was in line to start and have a great career and the arm thing happened. After sitting out two years, nothing ever came back to the way it was before.

"It was pretty tough to handle," he said. "I tried to handle it and be positive, but it's hard going out there when you know you don't have what you used to have. I did everything I could to get back to being healthy, but I was never really 100 percent after that."

Rogers, his fiancee, is a Washington grad who ran track and cross country at the University of Nebraska-Omaha before joining KWWL. Now they are both back home and moving forward with their lives together.

"It's been great for us," he said. "I'm really happy."