OHIO Baseball
Bobcat baseballer adds big bat
By Zack Lloyd, Staff Writer
April 18, 2007 | 5:16 p.m.
It’s no wonder freshman Marc Krauss has had such an immediate impact on the Ohio baseball team. Coming out of high school, he was one of the best players in the state...at football.
Krauss was a two sport star at Patrick Henry High School in the small town of Deshler, Ohio. He excelled in both football and baseball and was named All-State three times for football and twice for baseball. However Krauss celebrated more individual and team success as a wide receiver than a catcher.
In fact, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, Krauss holds the state record for most career touchdown receptions with 46 and is tied for 10th all time with 17 touchdown receptions in a single season. He also helped Patrick Henry High School capture their first ever Ohio Division V State Championship.
Decision Time
When it came time to pick a college, Krauss had to decide whether he wanted to continue his collegiate athletic career in football or baseball. Initially Krauss looked at schools that offered him the opportunity to play his first love, football.
“I just weighed all my options and figured out that maybe football wouldn’t be the best decision for me collegiately,” Krauss said. “That’s what it basically came down to that I think I had a better shot at competing at the college baseball level instead of the football level.”
Unfortunately for Krauss, by the time he decided to pursue baseball most of the schools that were offering him a scholarship had already committed their money elsewhere.
Enter Ohio baseball coach Joe Carbone. While most college coaches interested in Krauss had abandoned ship after he declared his preference to play football, Carbone just waited.
“We talked about recruiting him and on early signing day he was looking at football first to see what would happen,” Carbone said. “He wanted to concentrate on his high school football season, which we respected and understood. After football season then we jumped in there and tried to convince him to just play baseball.”
Mission accomplished. Carbone successfully sold Krauss on the idea of playing college baseball instead of football. After his mind was made up, Krauss said the decision of where to play college baseball was a no-brainer.
“Coach Carbone was right there waiting for me like he said he would,” Krauss said. “I appreciate that. I knew it took a lot of guts on his part because he could have gave the money to people he knew. But he had a feeling that I’d stick around and I did and I liked it down here in Athens a lot, so I just went with it.”
Overcoming Early Struggles
Like most freshman adjusting to the next level of competition, Krauss struggled early with his swing, starting most games at first base. Through the first 19 games, Krauss was hitting a modest .254. While this was a rather respectable batting average for a freshman adjusting to the college level, Krauss wasn’t happy. He began working intensely with assistant coach Scott Malinowski to adjust his swing and the results were immediate.
“He’s made some adjustments with his swing,” Carbone said. “Coach Malinowski has done a good job of restructuring his swing a little bit so he would be a little bit more successful. And Marc has done a good job of taking the coaching and adapting and doing the things we felt would help him.”
The hours of hard work and studying film with Coach Malinowski finally paid off for Krauss on March 27 against Youngstown State. Although the Bobcats lost the game 14-7, he connected with three home runs and drove in five of Ohio’s runs.
“Against Youngstown State, that’s the first time that it all clicked,” Krauss said. “Since then my swing has been feeling real good and I’ve been seeing the ball really well.”
Beginning with that game against Youngstown State, Krauss has hit .470 over the course of the last 12 games. He has also hit six home runs and driven in 18 runs over that span. He has placed himself among the league leaders in various Mid-American Conference categories, ranking fifth in batting average, second in doubles, second in walks, second in on-base percentage and first in slugging percentage.
Krauss even captured the MAC Player of the Week award during his impressive streak.
“It’s an honor to get Player of the Week,” Krauss said. “The MAC has a great tradition of baseball, great players everywhere, not just at Ohio. To get that honor, it’s pretty neat especially because I’m a freshman. I definitely have a lot more I can work on and hopefully I can get a few more of those in my days here at Ohio.”
Still a Work in Progress
Krauss’s early success has positioned him in the mix for not only the MAC Freshman of the Year, but possibly even the MAC Player of the Year. While he says he has given some thought to the postseason awards, Krauss maintains that he and the team still have much to improve on.
“I set a goal for myself before the year,” Krauss said. “I wanted to be in the running for that Freshman of the Year in the MAC. I’ve thought about that but I just got to keep working. It doesn’t matter if I’m Player of the Year or Freshman of the Year and we get to the MAC Tournament and don’t win the championship, then it’s all for nothing.”
If the results thus far are any indication for the Bobcats, the MAC Tournament Championship may be a tall order to fill. Ohio is currently ranked last in the MAC East Division with an overall record of 12-20 and a MAC record of just 2-10.
Carbone and Krauss both agree that the team has to make some adjustments in order to gear up for a MAC Tournament run at the end of the season.
“I expect our guys to get up and get ready for every game and play hard,” Carbone said. “We’ve had some tough luck, had some injuries. Some of the guys haven’t played up to our expectations up to this point. Hopefully we’ll turn things around a little bit.”
In a perfect world for Krauss, he wins MAC Player of the Year and the Bobcats win the MAC Tournament. However, if Ohio is unable to turn their season around Krauss will remain one of the few bright spots and has already given Bobcat fans a reason to be thankful. They should be thankful that Krauss traded in his shoulder pads for a baseball bat and decided to play baseball for Ohio University.