After putting in an impressive junior season with the Hillsdale College baseball team in 2023, relief pitcher Zane Barnhart's elite talent didn't go unnoticed by the next level.
The Baltimore Orioles showed they had been paying attention to Barnhart's potential during the 2023 Major League Baseball draft on Tuesday, selecting Barnhart with the 511th pick in the 17th round and making the junior just the fourth Hillsdale player and second Hillsdale pitcher to be selected in the draft in its 58 year history.
By going in the 17th round, Barnhart also becomes Hillsdale's highest-ever selection in the MLB Draft, surpassing former ace and soon-to-be Hillsdale College Hall of Famer Troy Salvior, who went to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 21st round of the 1990 draft.
A member of Hillsdale's 2021 recruiting class, Barnhart had a breakout year as a sophomore in 2022, going from a seldom-used reliever as a freshman to the team's top closer and one of the better relief pitchers in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Building off that first taste of success, Barnhart showed up to Hillsdale for the 2023 season as a different pitcher, with a noticeable increase in both conference and velocity. The junior opened the season with a dominant long relief performance against nationally ranked Lee, pitching four and two-thirds innings with seven strikeouts to earn the win in extra innings.
That outing set the tone for what would become an excellent season for Barnhart, as he finished with a 5-1 record in 20 appearances with six saves, a 2.06 ERA, and 61 strikeouts to 10 walks in just 43.2 innings pitched, for an impressive 12.57 strikeouts per nine innings average. Thoughout the season, Barnhart was a force for the Chargers, and one of the most reliable arms out of the bullpen to finish a game in Hillsdale College history, whether that meant shutting the door with power in the ninth inning, or holding down lineups across long-relief outings of three or more innings. For his career at Hillsdale, Barnhart's 13 saves out of the bullpen are the second-most by a Chargers pitcher all-time, and his back-to-back seasons of six saves are tied for fourth all-time for a single season.
Barnhart's dominant showings and improved velocity got him on the radar of Major League Baseball teams early in the 2023 campaign, and scouts were a regular sight at Hillsdale's contests throughout the spring. Additional strong performances in the Prospect League leading up to the draft solidified the junior's chances of getting picked, and it was the Orioles who made the call on the third day of the 2023 draft.
The Medina, Ohio native is the first Hillsdale College player to be drafted since shortstop Jake Hoover was picked in the 28th round by the Texas Rangers in 2019. Hoover, who currently plays minor league baseball for the Lancaster Barnstormers in Pennsylvania, has made several stops so far in a three-year professional career, including a stint in AAA with the Round Rock Express in 2021.
While Barnhart is just Hillsdale's fourth draft pick in 58 years, he's the second selected by the Baltimore Orioles, who also took Chargers star Tommy Martin in the 40th round of the 1997 draft.
And Hillsdale is beginning to start a trend in recent years with the MLB Draft -- after having two former players picked in the first 53 years of the draft, with Hoover and now Barnhart, Hillsdale's added two more MLB draft picks in the last five seasons. It's a testament to the talent of both players and also how Hillsdale has grown as a program over the last decade as both a successful squad on the field and a place for elite talent to hone their skills and get noticed by the next level.