Photo by: Aaron Yost
College Baseball Daily continues our countdown to the start of the season with our 2014 Top 100 College Baseball Players. Today, we continue the countdown at number 33 with Kansas State senior Ross Kivett. The Broadview Heights, Ohio native attended St. Edward High School where he was a three year letterwinner under Dan Allie. As a high school senior, he hit .485 (47-for-97) with 10 doubles, two triples, 16 RBI and 16 steals bringing his team to the high school championship.
Kivett as a freshman played in 48 games with 38 starts. He finished the season hitting .314 (49-of-156) with four doubles, one triple and 19 RBI. He was solid on the basepaths stealing 8 bases in 13 attempts.
As a sophomore, he started every game at second base hitting .286 with 10 doubles, five triples and 28 RBI. He tied for fifth in the Big 12 in triples. He continued his strong base running by stealing 25 bases which was good enough for second best in the Big 12.
He had a breakout season in 2013 hitting .360 (94-for-261) with 15 doubles, 4 triples, 3 home runs and 39 RBI in 64 games. He picked up several awards including being named ABCA/Rawlings All-America Second Team, Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger All-America Third Team (2013), Big 12 Player of the Year (2013), and All-Big 12 First Team (2013).
He was a 10th round (291st overall) selection in the 2013 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians but did not sign. He spent the summer with the Orleans Firebirds in the Cape Cod Baseball League where he batted .336 with three home runs and 17 RBI.
A coach in the CCBL gave us the following scouting report on Kivett
He is a strong athletic middle infielder with a quick bat. He has strong wrists which makes him tough to strike out while covering the strike zone and doesn’t chase too many balls out of the zone. Good line drive approach with some gap to gap pop.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
