The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced the club has selected right-handed pitcher Thomas Harrington with the 36th overall selection in the Competitive Balance A Round, and left-handed pitcher Hunter Barco with the 44th overall pick in the Second Round of the 2022 First-Year Player Draft.
Harrington, who turned 21 on July 12, went 12-2 with a 2.53 ERA (26 ER in 92.2 IP), 111 strikeouts against just 18 walks and a .204 opponent average in 15 starts for Campbell University last season, earning Big South Pitcher of the Year honors after he led all NCAA pitchers in wins and set new school records in both wins and strikeouts. The six-foot-two, 185-pounder went from a walk-on to the Big South Freshman of the Year in 2021, capping the season with 5.0-innings of one-run baseball against the eventual champion Mississippi State Bulldogs in the NCAA regionals. At No. 36 overall, Harrington is the highest drafted player in Campbell University history, besting Seth Johnson who went 40th overall in 2019.
Harrington earned First-Team All-America honors from both the ABCA and D1Baseball in 2022 and was the first player in program history to be named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List. In addition to his work on the first, he was also named the Big South Scholar Athlete of the Year and a First-Team CoSIDA Academic All-American as a kinesiology, pre-physical therapy major.
Barco, 21, went 5-2 with a 2.50 ERA (14 ER in 50.1 IP), 69 strikeouts, 11 walks and a .187 opponents average in nine starts in 2022 before undergoing season-ending Tommy John Surgery in May. Prior to suffering the injury, he was named the No. 1 pitcher in college baseball by D1 Baseball on March 30 and earned SEC Pitcher of the Week and Dick Howser Trophy National Pitcher of the Week honors on February 22.
In three seasons at the University of Florida, Barco went 17-5 with a 3.18 ERA (54 ER in 152.2 IP), 189 strikeouts against just 43 walks with a .213 opponents batting average in 30 games (29 starts). He earned several honors during his time with the Gators, including being named a 2020 Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball, was a member of the 2021 SEC All-Newcomer Team and was on the roster with the 2021 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Barco was the highest-rated high school lefty in the 2019 draft class, but elected to go to the University of Florida.
