Zac Thornton was a skinny left-hander throwing his fastball in the 78-80 mph range when his family relocated from Minnesota to Lawrence, Kan., where his father had accepted a job as a track coach at the University of Kansas, before his junior year of high school.

Still unrefined, he got buried on the varsity baseball team behind established players as a junior before COVID hit and wiped out his senior season. He didn’t receive a single scholarship offer.

It led Thornton to Barton Community College near his home to continue his baseball career.

“He had something of a loose arm — good mover, good athlete, good family, good kid, all those things, and we kind of took a chance on him,” Barton pitching coaching Brett McBride told Sports+ this week.