Looking back on his journey in baseball so far, Maine South’s Kerim Orucevic is still a bit surprised it even started.
Orucevic’s parents were born in Bosnia and lived there until war broke out there in the early 1990s. Baseball is largely an unfamiliar game to everyone in his family.
“For all the Bosnian people that I know, I’m the only baseball player that I know,” Orucevic said. “It’s a pretty cool thing.
“My parents have helped me out as much as they can while not knowing the sport, and I really appreciate that. It’s been fun showing baseball to my family and teaching them about the sport.”
It all started with a childhood gift.
“When I was really little, my grandfather gave me a toy bat to play with, and I was just having a blast,” Orucevic said. “I hear the story all the time that I was hitting the ball hard already back then. From there, my family let me play some baseball, and I really enjoyed it and continued to get better. It’s been my sport ever since.”
Orucevic has come a long way. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound senior shortstop has committed to play at UC San Diego and is receiving interest from professional scouts.
He hit .410 with 27 RBIs and 31 runs in 31 games last year and received all-state honors.
Through Sunday, Orucevic was leading the Hawks (17-12-1) in RBIs with 21. He had hit two home runs and scored 18 runs. His batting average is down, at .293, as he’s dealt with opponents game-planning around him.
“I hadn’t seen a kid hit the ball as hard consistently as he did last season,” Maine South coach Brian Lorenz said. “This year everybody knows about him. Guys are pitching around him. They’re making sure they don’t give him any easy cookies down the middle.
“So, it’s like, ‘Hey, man, you’re not a secret anymore.’ You just have to go about your business, and he’s been doing it.”
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Finding a future
Orucevic tried out a wide variety of sports when he was younger.
“Growing up, I played soccer, basketball and a lot of tennis,” he said. “It was tennis more than anything. My dad got me into that, and it was really fun.”
Baseball, though, brought him a different kind of enjoyment.
“I loved baseball because it was a team sport and I loved playing with my friends,” Orucevic said. “Back then, I was the only tennis player that I knew, and I kind of had a hard time with not knowing anyone in the sport, not knowing the kids I was playing with and all that. I wasn’t mature enough at that time to be able to handle the individuality of it.
“I loved baseball more because my friends were playing it and it was a fun sport.”
Baseball remained more like a fun hobby than anything Orucevic thought could turn into a major part of his future — until he tried out for Maine South’s varsity team as a freshman. That season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he made an impression.
“Freshman year at tryouts, I kind of separated myself, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe my work paid off a little bit,'” Orucevic said. “I got to work out with the varsity team a little bit before COVID happened. It was kind of like, ‘OK, my coach is taking notice of me as a freshman. Maybe this is something I can do. Maybe I can play baseball in college.’
“I always played park district baseball growing up, but when I was a sophomore, I switched over to a local club, and before my junior and senior seasons, baseball was pretty much all I did in the offseason. I really devoted myself to it.”
It all paid off as Orucevic found what he considered to be the perfect combination of baseball and academics at UC San Diego, which moved up to Division I from Division II in 2020.
“I’ve never been more excited for anything,” he said. “To be honest, at the beginning of the process, I was looking only at the academic side of schools and what schools could provide me a good education. I’ve been a very good student throughout high school, and I wanted to go to a school where I wouldn’t be selling myself short academically.
“I made a big list of schools that really fit that profile. UC San Diego was sort of at the top of the list. I figured it was an awesome spot. It was a really good school, a UC school. I started calling them a lot.”
The recruiting process picked up from there. Orucevic promoted himself by sending the coaching staff videos of his huge junior season.
“After my high school season last year, I decided that was the place for me,” he said. “I love the coaches. They’re all really funny. They were Division II and became Division I recently and have been doing really well. I think they’re trending up.
“The weather is great too. I wasn’t necessarily concerned about the weather, but it just works out that the best place for me also happens to be in the place with the best climate in the country.”
Orucevic is planning to major in data science.
“I want to have a career in that field with data analytics and computer science,” he said. “I enjoy math a little more than the rest of the guys on the baseball team. I work with computers a lot and data, and I like it, and I know it’ll be a good job to have. They have a really good program for it at the school.”
Lorenz is confident Orucevic has the tools to succeed wherever he goes.
“You can preach to the kids that they have to get their running in and get their lifting in when I’m not there, and you can say it until you’re blue in the face, but he’s the kid who actually does it,” Lorenz said. “He does more than he probably should be doing. He needs to be told, ‘Hey, you can take a day off.’ I don’t know if he has.
“He’s going to UC San Diego, and he’s had professional scouts at our games because people notice that. They see that ‘it’ factor. You know what you’re going to get day in, day out from Kerim.”
‘110’
Orucevic made an immediate impression on the Maine South baseball program that had nothing to do with his ability to hit or throw.
“Even as a freshman, he came in and all the seniors were like, ‘Hey, calm down,'” Lorenz said. “This kid was going 100 miles an hour at practice in simple drills and everything.
“They ended up nicknaming him ‘110’ because he goes 110 miles per hour.”
Orucevic said that’s the only way he knows how to play.
“Every practice and every game, I’m always trying to go 110%,” he said. “I consider myself always equal to everyone around me. I have to earn everything every time. You never know what’s going to happen if you don’t work hard enough to earn it. I know everyone else in the state is getting better, and if I’m not getting better, I’m falling behind.”
Dan Allegretti, a senior infielder, sees the serious approach Orucevic always takes.
“I think Kerim is a different type of high school baseball player,” Allegretti said. “There are guys who play baseball, and then there are baseball players, and he’s the second one. He’s the only guy who will constantly critique himself, and he’ll be upset about the smallest details that players like me don’t really consider.
“We have eighth period off together, and every day he’s constantly asking if I want to go hit in the cage with him for an hour just so he can work on the smallest of things, so when games come, he can be perfect — almost.”
Allegretti said Orucevic’s passion spreads to the rest of the team.
“Teammate-wise, he’s the best,” Allegretti said. “He’s always motivating everyone. You’ll always hear his voice constantly cheering us on. If we’re up 10 runs or down 10 runs, it doesn’t matter. He’s always so focused and into the game. He really brings that energy that pushes us to compete at a higher level.”
Overcoming adversity
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Early this season, it became obvious to Orucevic that opposing pitchers were going to approach him a bit differently than they did last year.
His frustration started to build.
“It took me a little to just not let it affect me,” he said. “I’ve been telling myself that this happens to the best players, and all I care about right now is getting wins, getting us going for a big playoff run and trying to find it every day, focusing on preparing as best as I can.”
The Hawks were just 2-9-1 in mid-April but had won 15 of 18 games through Sunday. Orucevic’s production has increased as he’s taken a new approach.
“What I’ve learned, really, is that it’s not easy ever,” he said. “As you ascend levels of baseball, it only gets a lot harder. I’ve learned to sort of not let the past affect me anymore.
“Sometimes it happens, and I get frustrated. But I’ve learned that you have to stick to your approach, and you have to go into every day with a plan. You can’t go into a game expecting to get a hit by just swinging the bat. You have to be smart about it.”
Lorenz has seen Orucevic’s patience grow.
“It was a struggle at first,” Lorenz said. “It was like, ‘Hey, I’m not going 4-for-4. What’s going on?’ It’s just about letting the game come to you and not trying to do too much.
“If you take a walk and the guy behind you can hit you in, that’s great. He’s been figuring all that out, and we’re expecting to count on him big time in the postseason.”
Orucevic said he hopes to be at his best when it matters the most.
“We started slow, but once we started picking it up and hitting the ball better, we’ve been doing very well over the last half or two-thirds of the season,” he said. “We just want to keep momentum going into the playoffs. I just want to be ready to help my team win big games.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.