Once a walk-on, Scott Kingery looks like a key piece of Phillies future

For as long as Scott Kingery can remember, he always dreamed of being a professional baseball player. But those dreams looked pretty dim, the Phillies prospect said, when he graduated high school in June of 2012 without a single offer to play Division I baseball.

Kingery had plans to play baseball at a nearby junior college, yet his 5-foot-7 frame was filled with the confidence that he belonged in Division I. He fired emails to college coaches, pleading with them to take another look at the undersized player they had already overlooked.

Kingery, who now seems to be a key piece of the next contending Phillies team, was then just a kid fighting for a chance.

One of his messages reached the University of Arizona, who obliged Kingery's request and dispatched an assistant coach to the final tournament of the summer. The fall semester was just three weeks away and Kingery's future was still very much uncertain. Kingery assumed he had already spoiled his chances with the Wildcats after they watched him struggle in a game during the school year. However, that second look swayed them. Arizona was out of scholarships, but the assistant told Kingery he could try and make the team as a recruited walk-on. It was all Kingery needed.

"I just tried to find a way, any way that I could to get someone to give me a shot," Kingery said. "I played with guys that already had scholarships and thought I had an equal talent level and equal skillset. People always underestimated me because of my size. But I honestly thought that I could get a spot on the team no matter what."

Kingery realized his dream in June of 2015 when the Phillies drafted him in the second round. The Phillies said then that Kingery's advanced bat could move him quickly through the system. He's proving them right. He entered Thursday with 14 homers at double-A Reading, which is tied for the most among all minor leaguers. It equals the combined amount he hit in three seasons at Arizona and his first two years with the Phillies.

The second baseman is a strong defender and base runner and has gap-to-gap power with a sweet line-drive stroke. He hit 36 doubles last season. Now those doubles are turning into homers. Kingery, who is just 5-10, is not sure why. He gained some muscle this winter after feeling worn out at the end of last season. Kingery also made a slight alteration to his swing, putting an emphasis to stay on his back leg after noticing last season that he started to lunge toward pitches. The home runs may be inflated by Reading's hitter-friendly ballpark, but just eight of the 14 have come there.

"For me, as a leadoff hitter, I'm just trying to find a way on base. I'm not trying to do too much. I'm just trying to put the ball in the gap, run a little bit, and get myself on base. I never think about home runs," Kingery said. "Playing in Reading, it's easy to think about that and start trying to get big. I felt myself doing that a couple weeks ago and I had to remind myself as I move up that I'm not going to be a homerun hitter. I'm still going to be a line drive hitter that finds the gaps. I have to keep that line drive swing going."

Brandon Buck first learned of Scott Kingery in the summer of 2006, two years before Kingery would join Buck's team at Mountain Pointe High School. Buck saw Kingery and his twin brother, Sam, play on ESPN in the Little League World Series, salivating at the chance to coach them.

"Runners were on first and second and he was at shortstop," Buck said. "The ball was in the hole and he dove and made the play and went to third base with it. Understanding that his only play was to go there with it. I was just like 'Oh my gosh.' To do that at that age, he just understood the game so well. When he came in, he brought that confidence. He knew how to play and knew how to work."

Kingery was a catalyst for Mountain Pointe's Arizona state championship team during his junior year. He batted .485 as a senior with 10 homers. He was an All-American and All-State player. But Kingery still had no scholarship offers.

"I couldn't get it," Buck said. "We called so many schools and all of them kept saying that he was too short. They would even call our opponents and say what do you think of this Kingery kid. Our opponents would say, 'He's a stud. You have to take him.' When your opponents are saying that and schools still aren't taking him, it's very frustrating. It's an amazing story."

Kingery found his chance with Arizona. He played well enough in the fall of 2012 to earn a spot on the spring roster. His uniform number changed from 53 to 25. His parents sent a cake to congratulate him. He batted leadoff in the season opener for the defending national champs. Buck's phone buzzed with texts from college coaches, admitting they missed on Kingery. (Arizona gave him a scholarship for his junior year.) Three years after walking on, he was the conference's player of the year and a second-round pick.

"We were very fortunate," said Andy Lopez, who coached Kingery at Arizona. "We didn't have a scholarship to offer but he was more than worthy of one when we recruited him. Scott's a special one. Credit to his mom and dad and high school coach. We really didn't do anything. We put him in the lineup, gave him his at-bats, got him in the weight room, put him on a plane, put him on a bus, and watched him play. He really, really came with tremendous class, work ethic, and humility."

The former walk-on is now pushing towards triple A. He could be in the majors by the end of the season. It's easy to envision a future Philles lineup with Kingery batting leadoff as the perfect spark plug. And none of it would be possible if a kid never fought for his chance.

"I still think about it sometimes. It's a crazy route that I took, but I wouldn't change it for anything," Kingery said. "It really made me the player that I am today. I play with a chip on my shoulder and I'm always trying to prove something."