Kruno Gojković

Kruno Gojković

• Bats Both, Throws Right

• Born November 20, 1995

Biographical Information

Kruno Gojković has played in Croatia and Germany and for the Croatian national team.

He debuted for the Croatian senior team in the 2014 European Championship at age 18. In his debut, he replaced Michel Čurić at third base late in a 18-2 loss to Spain. In his first at-bat, he singled off Leslie Nacar. He started their last two games at third base. Against Sweden, he tripled off Arvid Carlstedt. He finished 2 for 7 with a triple and two RBI, handling 14 chances error-free. He attended the MLB Europe Elite Camp in 2015.

Starting at short for Croatia in the 2015 B-Level European Championship, he hit .294/.478/.353 with two steals in two tries and six runs in five games, but made four errors, fielding .882. He tied Bogdan Stovba, Martin Andonov, Nikola Sertić and Jakob Trobec for 4th in the event in runs, tied for 7th in steals, tied Trobec for 3rd in assists (17), tied Tadej Brelih, Dimitar Nasapov and Alexander Gorrin for the most errors and tied for 3rd in walks (5) with Serhiy Tikhonets, Nasapov and Alexander Vaclavik. Croatia won to retain a spot in the European Championship. He was on Team Europe for the 2015 Asia Winter Baseball League.

Gojković hit .333/.368/.500 for Olimpija Karlovac in the 2016 CEB Cup, stealing two bases in two tries but fielding .750 (4 E in 4 G). He tied Dzmitry Viarzhbitski for second in the event with three doubles and tied teammates Matija Sertić and RJ Vukovich for second in errors. With Croatia for the 2016 European Championship, he was perhaps their top offensive performer (.480/.552/.480, 6 R in 7 G), fielded .931 and stole one base in three tries. He led the team in average (.105 ahead of Philip Smith), hits (3 ahead of Smith) and OBP (.129 ahead of Smith) while ranking 3rd in slugging and 2nd in runs (one behind Andrija Tomić). For the Euros, he was 5th in average (behind Yurendell de Caster, Alessandro Vaglio, Stefano De Simoni and Maxime Lefevre) and tied for 6th in hits (with Curt Smith and Richard Klijn).

In the 2017 CEB Cup, he hit .214/.313/.214 for Karlovac but with five runs and five RBI in four games. He also pitched once, allowing 7 runs (4 earned) in a loss to the Templiers de Sénart. He drove in 3 against the Eagles Praha. Defensively, he had 16 chances error-free. He tied for 5th in the Cup in runs. In the 2017 U-23 European Championship, he hit .348/.444/.565 with 6 runs in 6 games and pitched well in a loss to Spain (3 R, 1 ER in 7 IP). He tied Fran Stančić-Vidrač for the team lead in runs.

He played in Germany in 2018, signing with the Ulm Falcons. He was not their only Croatian player as Antonio Horvatić also was with the team. Starting at short usually, he hit .243/.322/.311 but he also saw action at C, 2B, 3B and P. He was 0-3 with a 5.75 ERA, walking 16 in 20 1/3 IP. He was back with Karlovac for the 2019 Federations Cup and put on quite a show, going 14 for 19 (.737) with two doubles, three homers, a steal, a walk, ten runs and 8 RBI in five games; his OPS was 2066. He fielded .833 and did struggle on the mound (10 R, 6 ER in 5 IP in a loss to the Vienna Metrostars). He led the Cup in average (.112 ahead of Benjamin Salzmann), OBP (.011 ahead of Salzmann) and hits (2 ahead of Graham Fisher), was 2nd in slugging (.208 behind Fisher), tied Moritz Hackl for 3rd in runs, tied Sam Boermans for 4th in RBI, tied for 2nd in doubles, tied for 2nd in homers (2 behind Fisher) and was 2nd in total bases (7 behind Fisher). He did not claim the MVP, which went to Rusty Thompson.

Gojković scored both of Croatia's runs in their opening 3-2 loss to Spain in the 2019 European Championship and later scored three in a rout of Sweden. Due to a technical error, the stats against Great Britain do not show up in the cumulative stats and leaderboard. He hit .450/.522/.500 with 7 runs in the 6 games that are counted in those stats, fielding .875; against Britain, he was 1 for 4 with a hit-by-pitch and three error-free chances, generally hurting his rate stats and helping his counting ones. The leaderboard shows him at 4th in average (after Sebastiano Poma, Moritz Scheicher and Marco Cardoso and .006 ahead of #5 Sharlon Schoop), 5th in OBP (between Kalian Sams and Salzmann), tied for 8th in runs and tied for first in errors (4, even with Will Savage, Scheicher, Nico Filice and Claus Seiser).