By Robert Fulton

Not a lot of people in the mainstream know about the baseball program at Dallas Baptist University.

But Pflugerville High School graduate Jason Krizan did. And that’s why he decided to attend the school of 5,000 students back in 2007.

“I chose DBU because I heard good things about the coaching,” said Krizan, now a junior. “It’s a really good school.”

One thing that appealed to Krizan is the school’s track record of winning ways. The program has 31 consecutive winning seasons entering the 2009-2010 school year. While the rest of the school’s athletic department plays a Division II schedule, the baseball team is Division I, and enjoyed its first-ever trip to NCAA tournament in 2008. Budding Major League star Ben Zobrist of the Tampa Bay Rays played his senior year at DBU, and Krizan hopes to one day follow in his footsteps.

Last season, Krizan batted .389 and led the team with 74 RBIs to go with 16 home runs. This season the outfielder is hitting .372 through 32 games. He again leads the team in RBIs with 35, to go with seven home runs. His biggest game this year came April 2 against South Dakota State when he went 4-for-4 with two homers and seven RBIs.

“We played pretty well,” he said. “I felt really locked in for that game”

Krizan bats third for the Patriots, one of the fiercest offensive forces in all of college baseball. The team is ranked fifth nationally in home runs, home runs per game, and slugging percentage; seventh in doubles per game; eighth in hits; and ninth overall in doubles.

Impressive wins for DBU this year include 8-7 over then-fifth ranked TCU in late March and 7-6 over No. 25 Rice last week.

However, Krizan would like to see a better record than his team’s 17-12 mark.

“It’s not going the way we had hoped,” he said. “We have the talent. We just need to do it. We’re not clicking on all cylinders right now.”

Krizan doesn’t get back to the Pflugerville area too often since he’s been playing summer baseball the last two years. In 2008, he was in Massachusetts, and in 2009 found himself playing in Iowa.

He said the time in Massachusetts was eye-opening.

“I was a little skeptical,” he said. “It ended up being the best experience of my life. It was a lot of fun.”

Krizan is studying kinesiology with plans of one day coaching. He loves the game, and can’t really ever see himself not a part of it.

“I have a feeling when I get done with baseball, I’m not going to want to be away from the field,” he said.

However, with this his junior year, and considering the numbers he’s been putting up, maybe one day he’ll make it to the Big Leagues.

“I hope so,” he said, adding that to get there, he needs to “just do what I got to do on the field.”