Carlinville, IL – Blackburn College has named Jacob Kraft to be the new Baseball Head Coach. 

"I want to thank Athletic Director Kim Camara-Harvey and the entire search committee for this amazing opportunity to lead the baseball program at Blackburn," Kraft said. "Leading a group of men at the college level has been my goal since beginning my coaching career in 2019.  I'm looking forward to creating a championship culture that will unite our players, coaches, alumni, and the entire Blackburn community." 

Kraft comes to Blackburn from Crown College in Minnesota where he helped guide the Polars to two consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championship Game appearances including a 2024 win that sent the team to the NCAA Tournament. During his two years as an assistant coach, he assisted in the development of one All-American, two Pre-Season All-Americans, five All-Region selections plus had 12 All-UMAC selections.

Before Crown, Coach Kraft spent nearly three years within the club baseball circuit in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area coaching athletes who are currently competing within all levels across the NCAA. During this time, he was also the Head Varsity Coach at Rockford High School in Rockford, Minnesota. While at Rockford, the Rockets completed their best season in over a decade and finished above .500 within the conference for the first time in school history. After graduating from Augsburg University, Kraft spent 3 years operating his own small business providing lessons to athletes of all ages out of Forest Lake, Minnesota. 

While attending Augsburg, Kraft was a member of the baseball and football teams and earned First Team All-Conference his senior year of football. He completed his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Augsburg University in 2019 and holds a master's degree in Sports Coaching and Administration from Crown College.