Nothing Left on the Table: How Gabe Craig’s Perseverance Pushed Him To Be An All-American
Baylor Baseball: 2025 Offseason Thread
Before blossoming into Baylor’s star closer this spring, right-handed pitcher Gabe Craig had a complicated playing career that featured major inconsistencies on the mound and three schools in five years.
While waiting to see if he’d be granted another season of eligibility due to a medical redshirt that had cut his 2021 campaign short at Texas A&M, the 6-foot-5, slender righty wrestled with himself, knowing that there was a disconnect in what he was capable of doing versus the results he was having.
“I felt like I was in this middle ground, where I wasn’t pitching bad enough to where I should probably hang it up, but I also wasn’t pitching near to the potential that I knew I could,” Craig said in a sit-down interview with SicEm365.
Ultimately, Craig was deemed eligible for a sixth collegiate season and decided to return to Waco with one thing on his mind: “My goal was to come back and be an All-American this year, or it was to suck. I didn’t want to look back with anything else left on the table.”
Craig was a man of his word and followed that peculiar proclamation with a historic season, leading the nation with a microscopic 0.56 ERA, a 0.50 WHIP and a 51:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Of his 24 appearances, he logged 22 scoreless outings, 14 hitless outings and struck out at least two batters 16 times.
He finished the year on a 20.1-inning scoreless streak across his last 12 appearances. Against conference opponents, Craig boasted a 0.49 ERA and fanned 31 batters while issuing just one walk.
Craig was rewarded for his stellar 2025 season with First-Team All-Big 12 honors and was named an All-American by D1Baseball, Baseball America, NCBWA and Perfect Game; he was also a finalist for the prestigious National Stopper and Pitcher of the Year awards.
But what came before the success and accolades this spring was a story of perseverance and a lesson that success isn’t always linear; as Craig likes to say, “a testament to God’s faithfulness.”
In his first-ever Little League game, the nine-year-old Craig was forced onto the mound after the starting pitcher called in sick and was unable to play, a fitting beginning to what would become a life-long obsession — striking out batters.
As Craig grew up as the second-youngest of six siblings in Tyler, Texas, and passionately pursued baseball, he was underrecruited because he didn’t spend his summers traveling around the country to select tournaments and attended a private school, Grace Community, where his mother, Sherry, was a teacher.
Still, though, Craig credits his mother for being his rock and helping him chase his dream, as someone who always selflessly made sure he was at every practice and game.
“My mom has made so many sacrifices and done so much for me throughout some different hardships that have really motivated me to want to be at my best,” he said. “She’s supported my dream for me, even through the good and bad, and never let me give up on it.”
Due to an injury toward the end of his high school career, Craig didn’t even see time on the mound as a senior. Instead, he was a First-Team All-District third baseman that led his team in long balls (5) and runs batted in (28) while hitting for a not-too-shabby .375 batting average.
After high school, Craig stayed local and landed at Tyler Junior College, where he became a pitcher-only and, for the first time, truly began to understand what he was capable of. Across eight appearances, Craig struck out 20 batters and held a 2.93 earned run average before the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly put an end to his freshman season.
“I had a really good relationship with both coaches, especially the pitching coach, Mike Ruppenthal, because I was around him a lot,” Craig said. “He was super impactful and was really the first person to tell me I had a lot of talent and to believe in me. He helped me take those first steps in developing as a pitcher and taught me a lot about the game.”
With interest from bigger schools starting to file in, Craig didn’t want to leave the comfortable environment he had discovered at Tyler Junior College, but felt like he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the leap, especially when Texas A&M called.
In Aggieland, Craig made four appearances out of the bullpen early in the season before eventually experiencing some discomfort in his shoulder and ultimately having to undergo thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.
At the end of the spring, Texas A&M's long-time head coach, Rob Childress, was replaced by Jim Schlossnagle. Still recovering from injury, Craig was put in a tricky situation; he was offered the opportunity to return, but wasn’t granted a roster spot because the new coaching staff had never seen him pitch.
A return to TJC was always a viable option, but the idea of going back to junior college wasn’t something Craig initially was on board with. He had already reached the mountain-top of competition in the SEC and preferred to stay there, so why go back and start all over again?
“I was like, ‘Man, what am I going to do?’ I definitely knew the best thing for my career was to go throw and pitch innings,” Craig said. “It was a hard decision because I was like, ‘I’m going back to junior college. I already came from there and now I’m at a high level.’ I had to put any pride or anything like that aside and just say, ‘I trust God, and I know he’s directing my steps.’ I talked to some other people and felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Amidst the uncertainty of taking what was perceived as a “step backward” to some, Craig returned to Tyler Junior College and put together a stellar redshirt sophomore campaign, where he recorded five saves and struck out 38 batters in 22 innings while holding opponents to a .169 batting average.
“I’m really grateful I went back to junior college,” Craig said in retrospect. “For the first time in my career, I got to throw a good amount of innings and be out there a lot because of COVID, surgery and then all of that. I really enjoyed that time. Anytime I’m out there on a baseball field, you can’t take that away, and it’s always fun.”
Now fully healthy and with a solid resume in his back pocket, Craig spent the summer of 2022 fielding interest from Division I programs. He was in no hurry to make a decision and waited until late July when the Baylor coaching staff reached out.
“If I had made a decision earlier on, I would have never had the opportunity to come here,” Craig said. “For whatever reason, I didn’t. I was just waiting to see, and I didn’t feel right about any of those things. Then, when I came on a visit, I felt like this was the place I wanted to be.”
What transpired next wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Instead of arriving in Waco and finding early success, Craig was met head-on with the opposite. For arguably the first time in his baseball career, Craig was struggling immensely.
In Mitch Thompson’s first season as Baylor’s head coach, Craig made 18 relief appearances but held a rough 6.75 earned-run average and a below-average 1.50 WHIP.
“It was a hard thing, because I knew what I was capable of, and I had that success before,” he said. “It was really difficult. It was a struggle, mentally and physically, and being in this spot where it's like, ‘I know I have the talent, I know I'm still good enough. I know I can still perform at this level and achieve these things.’ Having that disconnect there is a difficult thing.”
Things didn’t get much better in 2024. Craig was used sparingly on a team desperate for any semblance of decent pitching. He tossed just 11 innings and walked 11 batters across 14 appearances.
“You feel a little lost, and I didn’t know what to do other than decide I just had to keep showing up pretty much every day and persevere through all of that and take it day by day,” he said. “It felt like a long time in the midst of it, but looking back, it went really fast. The relationships I have with my teammates and guys around me always helped me.”
The disappointment and how to overcome those struggles gave Craig the blueprint for the success he’d come to find the following season, although he didn’t know it at the time, saying, “When I look back, there’s actually so much I learned about myself in those moments.”
He added, “Facing some adversity on and off the field over the last couple of years. I had a choice, and I had to cling to my faith; it helped me maintain a good perspective when I was going through those things. It gave me the strength to keep persevering because I knew there was a bigger picture, a bigger purpose to all of it.”
When Craig was granted an extra season of eligibility and made his aforementioned proclamation about not “leaving anything on the table,” he was determined to return and achieve the success he had been chasing since leaving Tyler Junior College.
Insert Sean Snedeker — the veteran pitching coach from Lamar who has worked with five All-Americans across his 30-plus-year career. Shortly after Snedeker arrived in Waco last offseason, he and Craig hit it off.
“The biggest part is the relationship and the trust I have with Sned,” Craig said. “When you know someone has your back and you have that relationship with them, it helps give you a lot of confidence on top of getting confidence from other areas.”
Snedeker helped Craig completely rework his mental approach, with Craig saying, “There was a disconnect in what I was trying to do. I love striking people out, and I don't want guys to get hits. I knew I had the stuff to do it, but it was almost subconsciously I was thinking that I don't want to throw it anywhere where they can hit it. Something that he always talks about is that strikeouts are awesome, but you can't strike someone out unless you get two strikes first. That was a big mental change for me. My goal is to try to just fill up the zone and get to two strikes as fast as possible, and just trust the stuff that I have.”
Easier said than done. After winning the closer job before the season started, in Craig’s fourth appearance of the spring, all of the progress he had made mentally was put to the test in a flukey outing against Gonzaga, where he blew a save after a throwing error and surrendered multiple infield singles.
“I talked with Sned after the game, and we just kind of laughed about it and said there's a long season ahead of us,” Craig noted. “I knew they were gonna gonna need me, and it was something we're just gonna flush and move on from. I left the field that day and put it behind me.”
From that point forward, Craig was untouchable, allowing just one run and nine hits across his next 20 outings. In those 28 innings, he punched out 47 batters and issued just two free passes. Everything culminated in the final game of the regular season against Oklahoma State, where Craig had a special performance, tossing a career-high 4.1 shutout frames and securing the win in Baylor’s come-from-behind, extra-innings 5-4 victory.
“My favorite part about all that was, yeah, like I pitched good and all that stuff, but being able to keep our team in the game and have our team get a win at the end of it, that was really cool,” he said.
Craig added, “That was the last time I threw here. I wanted to leave it all out on the field at Baylor Ballpark. That was a really special moment with senior weekend and all that stuff. Getting that win on Sunday as a team was really special to me.”
Following the end of the season, Craig was rewarded for his play with First-Team All-Big 12 honors. Craig had outstanding numbers all season but was dominant in conference play, allowing just seven hits across 18.1 innings in 12 appearances and locked down six saves.
“It was a moment I could sit back, take a breath and be grateful,” he said. “It was special to find out, and I was super thankful to be picked for that, and just all the help of my teammates and coaches. It means a lot more to me now, considering everything else and the career path I had to go through to get here. It didn't come easy, and it means a lot more to me now because of all that stuff, and sticking with it.”
Now, Craig's goal is to maintain this level of success moving forward, saying, “This season was a blessing, and now it’s about knowing how to stay consistent in success. How can I handle success? All of that has been a culmination leading up to this year, just learning a ton about the game itself, learning a ton about myself as a pitcher and learning about pitching, learning about how to kind of deal with adversity, whether it's pitch to pitch, or it's month to month, outing to outing, things can look different.”
With the MLB Draft scheduled for July 13-14, Craig is “excited to see where it takes him” and will continue to prepare as he awaits the moment his name is called; he is set to become the second player drafted in the Thompson Era, joining Mason Marriott (Arizona Diamondbacks: 2024).
Despite the struggles in his first two seasons donning the Green and Gold, he never questioned that he’d be in this position today, noting, “If you had asked me a year ago that I’d be preparing for the draft, I’d say, ‘Yeah, of course I am.’ After last year, I told myself that I'm gonna make it happen this year. I never doubted that, even in the struggle. Last summer, I never lost faith in myself. I knew I could always get there.”
But Craig’s journey to overcome adversity hasn’t just taught him lessons on the field; it has also taught him valuable life lessons and given him a broader perspective, knowing that eventually, he won't be playing baseball forever.
“I hope I can play this game as long as I can, for a lot of years, but at some point it will end,” he said. “There are other parts of life that are more important, and so learning how to walk through different adversities, handle conflicts or build relationships with teammates or the people around you.”
He continued, “I'm super grateful for all of that, because I think it has grown me a lot as a man and as a husband or a father, one day. It's grown me in my faith and just helped me realize the importance of how much of an impact that you make on the people around you, and being aware of that, and really wanting to influence people toward Christ.”
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- Offseason Notebook: Rebuilding & Retooling Senior-Heavy Lineup
- Baylor Baseball Lands Impactful UTA Infielder Cade Dodson From Transfer Portal
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