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Former LaGrange High baseball standout Zack Thompson entered his name into the transfer portal earlier this year. After playing a lone season at Mercer, Thompson was looking for a new home and found one in Boiling Springs, NC, as the former Granger announced his transfer to Gardner-Webb University. 

Thompson has never had an easy path to playing Division I baseball. He was labeled as undersized coming out of high school, despite earning GA Dugout Club 4A Co-Player of the Year, Georgia Dugout Club All-Star and MaxPreps Team Player of the Year honors while leading LaGrange to a 4A state runner-up finish. 

“I’ve wanted to play at the Division I level since as far back as I can remember, and I knew it was possible if I put my mind to it,” Thompson told the LaGrange Daily News back in 2023. 

Before transferring to Mercer, Thompson spent the first two years of his career at the junior college level. He started his collegiate baseball career at Gordon State, where he played two seasons, improving dramatically in his time with the Highlanders. As a freshman, Thompson played in 39 games, hitting .286. In his final season at Gordon State, he slashed .337/.438/.487 with 56 RBIs and 50 runs scored, earning GCAA All-Conference recognition.

“Coming out of high school, I was not ready to play at a Division I level,” Thompson said when transferring to Mercer. “I think I was good enough defensively, but not offensively. I didn’t hit for power enough, I didn’t drive in enough runs, but that is what I’ve been working on.”

It was a productive first year at the Division I level with the Bears. The rising senior started 48 games for Mercer, hitting .247 with 22 RBIs and 19 runs scored. Thompson consistently flashed his glove behind home plate and compiled a 99.3 fielding percentage.

Thompson helped the Bears finish in third place at the SOCON tournament. 

After seven straight trips to the Big South conference tournament, the Bulldogs’ baseball team has floundered a bit in recent years, compiling a record of 39-67 over the last two seasons, missing the postseason both times out. This is not unlike something Thompson has experienced before. The Granger baseball team was stuck, trying to make a postseason push in Thompson’s first couple of years with the team. 

By the end of his journey in LaGrange, the team was the 4A state runner-up, which at the time was only the second time the team had appeared in the state championship series, and the foundation he helped lay would open up the door for another state runner-up finish for LaGrange in 2023. During his senior season in blue and white, Thompson hit .357, driving in 31 runs and throwing out 10 would-be base stealers behind the plate.

There is no time off for Thompson, who is playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League this summer for the Keene SwampBats. The catcher was named the NECBL Player of the Week for the first week of June, hitting .429 with three homers and four RBIs.