By MARK LAZERUS

Post-Tribune

Seems like a natural fit. Kevin Upp's been pitching pretty much his whole life, so surely his younger brother Kyle would be the perfect candidate to move to catcher for LaPorte this year.

Obviously, Kyle's strapped on some shin pads and caught Kevin in the back yard plenty of times. Certainly, they have an uncanny chemistry that can only come from years of working together. Naturally, they'd call for the same pitches in any situation.

The VU-bound right-hander struck out 12 of the 15 batters he faced in a five-inning perfect game Tuesday. LaPorte beat Brandywine, Mich., 23-0 in the game.

Right? Well, no.

See, Kyle's never caught Kevin before. Not in high school. Not in fall ball. Not in travel ball. And not even in the back yard. Why?

"His dad was a catcher," LaPorte coach Scott Upp says. "So I always did it."

And so the move from infielder to catcher hasn't been an easy one for Slicers junior Kyle Upp. He caught a little bit four or five years ago, but this is something different entirely. He has to adapt to much faster pitches and much nastier breaking pitches than he saw at age 12. He has to be the leader on the field. He has to call his own pitches. And he has to replace two-year starter and all-conference catcher Tyler Overmyer.

"It's hard," Kyle says. "You have to be the leader on the field, plus you have to do your job as a catcher. It's two tasks, so it's a little difficult. But I like it."

And even though the move was made out of necessity, he looks like a natural, after all. After playing second base and third base as a sophomore, hitting .330 with 22 RBI in the process, Upp didn't start catching full time until November. In the five months he's been working on his new role, he's come a long way -- as a catcher, a pitch-caller and a leader.

The key, Scott Upp says, is that his son isn't making the move reluctantly, even if it wasn't his first choice.

"The biggest thing when you move a kid from one position to another is he's got to buy in to it, and in this case, Kyle has bought into the catching position," Scott Upp says. "It's something that mentally you really have to make adjustments to. You're facing the opposite way, for one. You've got people telling you, don't use your glove, use your body, use this chest protector thing you have on. He's still making adjustments and he still has some work to do, but he's putting in the work and he's off to a very good start."

As are the Slicers. The No. 2 ranked team in Class 4A (behind only Duneland Conference rival Crown Point) has won its first six games, including a win over No. 10 Penn. And Kevin Upp -- with Kyle calling the pitches -- threw a five-inning perfect game on Tuesday in a 23-0 win over Brandywine, Mich. The Valparaiso University-bound pitcher got 12 of the 15 outs by strikeouts. The Upp brothers both knew he was working on a perfecto, but kept it to themselves.

"We just acted like it was any other out in any other inning," Kyle says.

But sharing in an achievement like that is part of what makes the whole brother battery so special.

"I think he's doing a great job, and it's been fun having him behind the plate with me pitching," Kevin says. "Probably a little nerve-wracking for my dad, though."

Indeed, Scott Upp has to deal with both the angst of being a baseball coach and the helplessness of being a baseball parent at the same time. His boys call him "Coach" on the field, though a "Dad" will slip by occasionally. They do their best to treat him the same way they'd treat any coach, and he tries to do the same.

As with any parent who doubles as a coach, though, Scott tends to overcompensate in an attempt to keep up appearances.

"Anyone on the team will tell you I have higher expectations for them -- which I shouldn't," he says. "I should treat them like anyone else. But you don't want anyone thinking you're favoring your own kids, so you tend to be harder on them as a result. Sometimes I have to go home and say, 'Hey, look, I know I was hard on you, but get used to it, because that's how we have to do it.'"

Besides, the benefits far outweight any awkwardness.

"It's fun," Kyle says. "It'll be something we remember for a while."

Unfortunately for the Upps and all the LaPorte players, coaches and fans, another thing they'll remember for a while is the way last season ended. A 20-win campaign came to a stunning conclusion in the sectional semifinals when Chesterton's No. 9 hitter, David Thornton, crushed a grand slam in the top of the seventh to turn a seemingly safe 5-3 LaPorte lead into a devastating 7-5 LaPorte loss.

With 11 key players, including Indiana-bound shortstop Dustin DeMuth and the entire pitching staff (led by Upp and left-hander Clay Mannering) back, the residual anger from that loss has fueled the Slicers all summer, fall and winter long.

"It didn't leave a good taste at all," Kevin Upp says. "That's not the way we wanted to end things. So in the offseason, we've been working hard, making sure we finish strong in everything that we do, so that doesn't happen again."

The Slicers hope to erase that loss by doing what LaPorte does best -- win a lot of baseball games and go far in the postseason. Expectations are always a little higher at LaPorte, home to eight state championship teams, so when Scott Upp had his players jot down their goals in the preseason this year, he put a twist on it. Winning 20 games? Earning a Duneland championship? Going deep in the playoffs? Upp told his players not to bother writing those down.

"This year, we listed those not as goals, but expectations," Upp says. "So that led to some more interesting goals that they came up with."

Among them are the obvious -- play hard, work as a team, etc. But the one the Upps like best is a little more intangible, one that fits the baseball family's tenacious mind-set.

"Our goal is to be the team that everyone hates to play," Kyle says. "We want people to not want to even come when they know they have to play LaPorte. If we can do that, we're doing something right."
With coach's sons leading the way, LaPorte hopes to erase memory of last
year's stunning end

 

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