Growing up in a baseball family, Oklahoma City University pitcher Cody Crabaugh learned to be a student of the game.
“It was awesome,” Crabaugh said. “I love baseball and I couldn’t be happier. There was a little pressure when I was younger, I didn’t develop very fast as a young kid, so I felt a little a pressure to be good enough. I never thought I would be good enough to be where I am at now playing for my dad at OCU, but now that I’m here I love it.”
The right-hander from Edmond, Okla., is the son of OCU coach Denney Crabaugh, and went 2-0 a week ago with a 0.84 earned run average en route to helping the Stars to their first road series win over Lubbock Christian (Texas) since 2004.
“I’m just trying to be consistent on the mound,” Crabaugh said. “I try to minimize the amount of thinking that I do out there and I pitch to contact so I have to have a lot of help from my teammates around me and they bail me out of some tough situations.”
Crabaugh is no stranger to success against Sooner Athletic Conference rival Lubbock Christian.
“I pitched against them in the conference championship game my freshman year,” Crabaugh said. “I went eight innings, I only gave up one run and had 10 strikeouts and we ended up winning a conference championship that year.”
Baseball was not the only sport Crabaugh played growing up. The junior was a three sport star at Edmond North High School, also playing basketball and football.
“I miss those sports every day,” Crabaugh said. “I have a football in my locker, I have a basketball and we’ll throw the football around or shoot some hoops. I miss the competitiveness of playing with a team, but baseball is the sport for me and I made the right decision.”
Crabaugh’s decision to stick with baseball was easier than his decision on what to study at OCU.
“I kind of got pushed into Physics,” Crabaugh said. “I wanted to be an engineer, but we don’t have that here at OCU and the next closest thing is a physics degree. You can go for your masters in engineering so I chose physics and it’s wearing me out a little bit, but I’ll be alright.”
More on Cody:
Reason I picked OCU: To play for my father
Favorite athlete: Tiger Woods
Reality show I hate: The Real World
Pregame ritual: Baseball stuff
Career plans: Play baseball and finish my physics degree
