Will Krug comes sprinting into Irwin Indoor Facility. 

Krug is late because he just got done with his chemistry discussion. He has barely had time to eat, stopping to grab a provolone and cheese sandwich from Potbelly. He said he just walked fast to get to practice, although he’s out of breath when he arrives. 

He hasn’t missed much of practice; the team just started and the hitters have begun to hit in the cage. 

But Krug changes quickly into his cleats and jumps into the cage to hit. 

Illinois’ newest leadoff man and right fielder just has so much energy. At 5-foot-8, 155 pounds he’s not the biggest or strongest member of the Illini.

“You’re not going to outwork Will,” said head coach Dan Harlteb.   

He takes his stance in the cage, a slight bend at the waist with his hands moving the entire time, wiggling the bat. He takes his quick swings and is ready for the next pitch almost as soon as he completes his swing. After his final pitch, he starts as if he’s running down the first base line, stopping just before the black wire mesh screen and grabbing two handfuls of balls, about five in each hand, before dumping them into the bucket to toss to the next hitter. He even gets in some practice throws, rapidly firing about four balls into the screen.

A perfectionist. He’ll do something over a million times if it’s not right. Sometimes that hurts him, and he can be an over thinker. That was his case last year, and a year of experience has been huge for his psyche. He said he feels 100 times more comfortable in the batters box.

“Just confidence and believing that he’s here,” said assistant coach Eric Snider. “He came here as a walk-on and sometimes kids think they’re just a walk on. It’s not the case. Krug brings it every single day. He actually works so hard I think he beats himself up.”

He’s the man his coaches say would run through a wall for the good of the team. 

Hartleb found that out multiple times last year. 

Krug wasn’t recruited by many Division I schools. He can barely remember one school in New York. He decided to choose academics over attending a Division II or III school because he wanted to major in civil engineering. But Hartleb remembers Krug begging the Illini coaches to give him a chance. The coaches told him the tryout date for walk-ons, but he was still resilient in asking for just a chance.

The coaches liked his intensity, his arm and his speed, and he was given a spot on the team with the Illini. 

He had to work to be successful, though, and it didn’t come as easily. He hit a respectable .275, but didn’t always find himself in the starting lineup. 

Following home games last season, after Hartleb finished giving interviews and showering, he’d come out to find Krug taking extra swings in the batting cage off the tee. If he could’ve done the same thing after away games, he would have.

“I just make it a routine of mine, when I’m tired after the game is when I put in a lot of work to try to really get my swing down and mechanics down because my body’s tired. So I feel like if I can do that when I’m tired then all of the time should be good mechanics.”

He’s an extremely modest person. He wouldn’t give himself credit, not for his .314 batting average — he says he doesn’t pay attention to stats and is just trying to get on base. 

He qualifies his new role as the leadoff man for now and couldn’t point out exactly what was different from last year. He won’t admit to being the most organized despite juggling an intense engineering curriculum schedule along with baseball.

“I do what I feel like I need to do to get everything done, or try to get everything done,” Krug said.

After being interviewed, he wanted to make sure he thanked his parents for all the support they have given to him, although he wasn’t sure if that was corny. He then said thank you and ran away to get back in the batting cage.

Jamal can be reached at [email protected] and @jamalcollier.