MU getting last laugh with its star shortstop

Not highly recruited, Kaup found his way to Miami by pure chance after two years at a D-III college.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 1:24 AM Sunday, May 15, 2011

OXFORD — Ryan Kaup used to fit the traditional image of a shortstop. Short and scrappy. It’s what people expect, what college coaches want.

The Miami University senior found that out the hard way.

“I had a big growth spurt toward the end of high school,” Kaup said. “I’m a big guy who plays with a small person’s mentality. I’m good at using my hands and my feet.”

Didn’t matter. All of a sudden he was 6-foot-5. That’s what mattered.

“I got a lot of comments about it,” he said. “When I told people I’m a shortstop they kind of laughed at me.”

There is a saying about he who laughs last, and right now the joke is on every NCAA Division I head baseball coach whose name is not Dan Simonds.

“The best shortstop I’ve seen in 20 years,” said Don Crain, former Miami baseball player (1968-70) and president of the board of trustees who rarely misses a game.

A “professional-level” fielder is how Simonds describes Kaup.

Many comments from spectators at McKie Field take the silent form of jaws dropping open when Kaup comes up with plays nobody expects him to make.

Kaup, 22, said he hopes to take his game to the big leagues. But regardless of whether he gets drafted, you can bet he will be in serious contact with major league organizations. This is not a man who takes no for an answer.

Kaup grew up in Chandler, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix and, after leading his team to the state semifinals, was greeted by a deafening lack of interest on the college front.

“I was not recruited very much at all, only by some small schools,” he said. “It was a little discouraging, for sure.”

He played two seasons at Claremont McKenna College, “a small Division III school” 35 miles east of Los Angeles. He did his thing in the field and batted over .300 both seasons.

Kaup wanted to play at the Division I level, but Miami was not on his radar screen. Pure chance was the reason he turned his attention to Oxford.

“I had a friend from high school who ended up going to Miami,” Kaup said. “I started emailing and they weren’t too interested at first. I didn’t have much to show them. They showed a small amount of interest, but I was so far away.

“I came to Miami,” Kaup said. “They’d never seen me in person. I never had an official visit. I just showed up.”

Simonds agreed to meet with Kaup, whose intention was to make the team as a walk-on.

“Ryan was a little bit of an unknown,” Simonds said. “We knew he was a good defensive player who could compete for a spot on the team.

“Not only did he win a spot on the team, he won a starting spot,” the Miami coach said.

Kaup was thankful, even though it took a short while to prove to Miami’s coaches that he could be a Division I shortstop.

“I didn’t know the whole process,” Kaup said. “I just knew they were giving me a chance and I knew I could prove myself.

“On the first day of practice they put me at third base because they didn’t think I could play shortstop. I’m pretty tall, so they didn’t expect me to be a shortstop,” he said.

“We originally put him at third base and then realized he could be a top-of-the-line shortstop,” Simonds said.

Kaup dazzled the Mid-American Conference with his glove last spring and this year has helped lead the RedHawks to their best season since 2005. On Saturday they completed a three-game sweep over Buffalo and improved their record to 31-21 overall, 17-7 in the MAC.

Kaup also has proven himself with the bat. Last year he was the RedHawks’ second-leading hitter with a .333 average, although in 2011 the hits have not come so frequently.

“That’s kind of how hitting is. It’s been up and down lately,” said Kaup, who is batting .241, but who also has been tearing up Big Ten Conference pitching. In four games against Indiana, Michigan State and Ohio State, he is batting .500.

“He’s had some very big hits and some terrific at-bats,” Simonds said. “His at-bat against Western Michigan was one of the best I’ve seen, fouling off pitches which were off the plate, down in the zone. He was really battling.”

The game on April 18 was tied 6-6 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning when Kaup finally hit a two-run double. The RedHawks won 8-7.

Still, Kaup’s real value has been the ability to disprove the notion that great-fielding shortstops can’t look like basketball players.

“He’s got great range, tremendous arm strength and instinct,” Simonds said. “He just really knows how to play the game.”

Contact this reporter at  (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.