Pitching Coach - Matt Kruse
(580)477-7971 office     woscpioneers@yahoo.com

Matt Kruse enters his second season as Pitching Coach for the Western Oklahoma St. College Pioneers after spending the previous three seasons as the Pitching Coach and Recruiting Coordinator for NAIA powerhouse Bellevue University in Nebraska.  In addition to his duties with the Pioneers he also is beginning his third year as an Associate Scout within the Baltimore Orioles organization.

The 2008 was a year of first's for the WOSC baseball program. The team finished a school record 52-12 and reached the NJCAA Div. II World Series for the first time in school history. The pitching staff would finish the year ranked 3rd in the country in strikeouts averaging 9.2 per 9 innings while holding opponents to a .264 batting average. The staff would go on to have two pitchers drafted and two D1 signees. 14 of Kruse's former pitchers have pitched professionally since 2005, including 2008 Baltimore Oriole's draftee Chase Phillips.

During his years at BU his pitching staffs helped lead the way to a three year overall record of 142-47 and two berths in the NAIA World Series, highlighted by a Semi-final appearance in the 2007 World Series.  Each year the pitching staff was ranked in the top 10  in the country in strikeouts, including the 2005 staff that led the country in ERA (2.78) and broke the NAIA National Record for Strikeouts in a Season with 644, a number that would be broken in the same season by eventual National Champion Oklahoma City University.  Numerous team and individual records would be broken including Team Season Strikeouts (644), Individual Strikeouts in a Season (140 by Jess LaCasse), and Strikeouts in a Game (26). Four pitchers would go on to earn All American accolades. During his years at BU, Coach Kruse would have the opportunity to learn under legendary Head Coach Mike Evans, who has made 12 trips to the NAIA World Series with one National Championship.

Coach Kruse began his coaching career as Pitching Coach at NCAA Div. II Northeastern St. University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma for the 2003 season under former OSU standout Sergio Espinal.  He also coached the Embrach Rainbows of the Swiss Nationalliga, the top league in Switzerland.  As a result of his work with Embrach, he was named Head Coach of the Swiss Senior National Team Program for their competition in the 2004 European Championship in Regensburg, Germany.  During the summer of 2006, Kruse served as Pitching Coach for the Wahoo (NE) Reds Legion Program, helping them to their second ever State Tournament appearance.  Coach Kruse has had the opportunity to share his insight during numerous speaking engagements including. the radio show Championship Thinking with Jim Meier and as a presenter at the 2007 National High School Coaches Association convention that was held in Oklahoma City. He will be spending the 2009 summer as the Pitching Coach for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaskan Baseball League.

A native of Bellevue, Nebraska Coach Kruse graduated from Papillion-LaVista High School in 1999 and was a member of the 1998 Nebraska Class A State Championship team. He graduated in 2007 from Bellevue University with a B.S. in Physical Education. Matt Kruse is married to the former Jasmin Gentsch of Winterthur, Switzerland.