Zac Veen was in the sixth grade when he first caught the attention of Johnny Goodrich — the man who later became his high school coach, mentor and close friend.
Then a 12-year-old baseball fanatic, Veen would often hop off the school bus, gobble down a snack and pedal his bike 20 minutes to the Spruce Creek High practice fields in Port Orange, Fla.
And when his time came, he’d slip into the batting cage and try to match up with the big kids.
“I remember looking into the cage and thinking, ‘Who is this little runt taking swings?