University of Connecticut Athletics
Nick Krauth Proved to be an Ace
3/30/2020 8:30:00 AM | Baseball
by Danny Barletta
One of the biggest surprises of UConn baseball's shortened season was the emergence of Nick Krauth as the true ace of the staff.
Krauth, a transfer from junior college, proved he was ready for the top level by turning in a remarkable string of starts to begin the Huskies' season. He made four starts, won all of them and allowed just one earned run in 24.2 innings for a miniscule ERA of 0.36. He struck out 24 batters and gave up just 14 hits, all but one of them singles.
However, Krauth's path to UConn wasn't nearly as easy as he made pitching look this year, and nobody expected him to perform at the level he did. Nobody except maybe Nick himself.
Krauth grew up in the San Francisco Bay area in Concord, California, where he enjoyed going to both Giants and A's games. As a kid, he played baseball all the time with his older brother Ben — now a prospect in the Cleveland Indians system — who Nick cites as a big inspiration in pursuing a baseball career.
Coming out of Northgate High School, Krauth planned to go to junior college, but he ended up getting recruited by the University of New Mexico instead. He admits now that he wasn't ready for that level yet.
"They gave me a really good offer, so I was like 'Heck yeah, let's go do this,'" Krauth said. "It was a tough adjustment. I wasn't ready for the school. I wasn't ready for the whole college part. I was 17, young. So it was definitely a big learning experience for me."
Krauth struggled in his lone season with the Lobos, posting a 8.74 ERA in just five appearances. That program dealt with a massive roster and coaching turnover, and Krauth felt that it would be best to go back home to junior college and reset. He ended up at Diablo Valley College, where he caught the eye of UConn pitching coach and recruiting coordinator Josh MacDonald.
In between series last season, MacDonald went out to California in search of a junior college starter. He attended a game between Diablo Valley and Modesto Junior College that Krauth was pitching, but he initially wasn't even there for Krauth.
"I was like let me go to Modesto and watch these guys throw, thinking I'm probably going to lean towards the guys on Modesto," MacDonald said. "Because at least on paper, it looked like they had better stuff. They threw harder and things like that."
But Krauth threw a complete game shutout, fielded his position well and showed an energy on the mound that MacDonald really liked. After a couple of weeks of recruiting, Krauth committed to UConn.
Initially, Krauth said he wasn't sure if he would be able to go to a big school because he was behind on credits, but he beared down and grinded through everything, including summer classes, in order to be eligible to transfer to UConn.
"It was perfect, it worked out well," Krauth said.
MacDonald initially expected Krauth to have a similar impact to Jeff Kersten, who graduated last year. But in the fall, he realized he may have gotten something more. It's tough to gauge how good a player is through scrimmages and intersquad practices, so it wasn't until his first start against Michigan that MacDonald said he knew the type of player he got.
"When you go up against a team like Michigan who just knocked off Vanderbilt and then Arizona State, and to watch them look completely befuddled by him, it was like, 'Oh, well it wasn't just our guys,'" MacDonald said.
Krauth threw 5.2 innings in that game, where he allowed just two hits and one unearned run while striking out five. The Huskies won 7-1, and Krauth picked up his first D-I victory against the best team he had ever faced.
"I was just really excited," Krauth said. "I've put in a lot of time and work trying to work on myself, work on baseball. So to get an opportunity to pitch against an opponent like that, I just wanted to go out and do my thing."
He did his thing, and he kept doing his thing. He beat the No. 1 ranked Wolverines again the next weekend and continued to improve each start, culminating in a seven-inning, one-hit shutout effort against Presbyterian on March 7. That would prove to be his final start before the season was suspended and then ultimately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Krauth was on an All-American pace. MacDonald said he would have won 10 games in his sleep. But Krauth isn't upset for himself; he's upset that the team never got to accomplish what they wanted.
"I thought we were gonna have a breakout season," Krauth said. "We were really starting to heat up. The bats were getting hot. We were just kind of starting to play as a team. So it just happened at the worst time."
But in the time he had, Krauth showed he can be the ace of a staff. He attributed some of his success this season to good pitch selection, but he attributed most of it to the people around him — the catchers, the coaches and his defense.
MacDonald said that while he doesn't have the most amazing stuff, he is a "mismatch nightmare" for opposing lineups because he is so smart on the mound.
"He really has an idea of who he is as a pitcher," MacDonald said. "He just really understood what he could do on that given day. A lot of guys, when certain things don't go their way, it's really hard for them because they want to attack one way. Nick can attack five or six different ways with his pitches."
"Because of all that, it really creates a kind of hurricane of mismatches for the opponent … He's not gonna throw 95, but he's gonna get results like the guy who would throw 95 out there."
Another thing that surprised MacDonald was Krauth's laid-back demeanor. He said Krauth goes out there every inning like it's a day at the beach. He never gets too high or too low on the mound, and MacDonald said that rubs off on the entire team. It gives a sense of confidence and solidarity that when Krauth was pitching, the team was going to do well. That was certainly the case this entire season, albeit a small sample size.
Krauth's emergence as an ace this season may have come as a surprise to everyone else, but it didn't come as a surprise to him and he feels he still has more to show.
"It seems this past year, year and a half, I've been progressing exponentially, and I want to continue to grow that," Krauth said. "Always trying to get better each year. There's only one thing I know how to do, and it's just go out there and give it everything I got."
MacDonald said he believes Krauth will get drafted if there is an MLB Draft this year. But if he is back for his senior year, MacDonald believes that he will be an ideal ace because he really knows what he is doing on the mound.
"When you have a pitcher in college that knows how to attack with Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, they're so tough to beat," MacDonald said. "I think that Nick would win a lot of games [next season], and I think Nick would also show the young guys in front of him that it doesn't take a 98 mph fastball to be successful."
Krauth has certainly had a unique college baseball journey. He's been at three different schools in three years. He has experienced failure, and he has achieved success. It's an experience that has shaped who he is and will continue to do so as he moves through his career.
"It's been quite a journey, it'll be a real cool story one day," Krauth said.
Well, Nick, I'd say it already is.
