He was born with one hand. Now he’s Skyview’s ace pitcher — and he’s only a freshman.

Blink, and you’ll miss it.

Skyview freshman Grayden Lucas toes the rubber, preparing to fire a pitch toward home plate. And in one smooth motion, he unleashes the ball from his left hand and transfers his glove to the same hand, readying himself for the ball’s return.

Lucas does it so quickly and effortlessly, it takes a focused eye to realize what’s happening — Skyview’s ace pitcher has only one hand.

But that’s never slowed down the 15-year-old. He’s never made any excuses. And he’s never asked for any special treatment.

Instead, he gets the ball out of his glove and toward its destination as fast as anyone on the team, Skyview coach Ryan Bobo said.

“You have to actually pay attention to realize, ‘Hey, that kid is only playing with one hand,’” Bobo said.

BORN WITH ONE HAND

Doctors found no reason to worry from ultrasounds for Lucas, the seventh of eight children in the family. So he surprised his parents when he was born missing his right arm below the elbow.

But Jay Lucas, Grayden’s father and a Skyview assistant coach, said they never treated him any differently or limited his opportunities.

Baseball was the family sport. Jay Lucas played in college. And all of Lucas’ older brothers played, including Easton Lucas, now a left-handed pitcher in the Orioles’ minor-league organization.

So Lucas naturally took a shine to the sport, tagging along to games and practices with his glove in tow.

“He just picked it up like everybody else,” Jay Lucas said. “He was 2, 3 years old throwing the ball around, hitting and playing in the batting cage. He just fell right into it. He’s been on all-star teams the whole way through since he was 6 years old.”

Baseball has morphed into a homogeneous game in the past decades. Coaches largely teach youth players the same way to throw, hit and catch, creating armies of lookalike athletes.

None of those techniques applied to Lucas, though. So he found his own way to excel through backyard catches with his father.

Jay Lucas said he showed his son highlights of Jim Abbott, who played 10 seasons with four different Major League Baseball teams, and threw a perfect game. Abbott also was a lefty with no right hand. Grayden tried Abbott’s technique, which saw Abbott pin the glove against his chest and let the ball roll out into his left hand. But he found his own method faster and more secure, so he returned to it.

Grayden Lucas fields the ball with his glove on his left hand. He begins the transfer by stuffing the nub below his right elbow into the open webbing of his mitt. He then uses his chin to hold the glove in place, reaching below to grab the ball. Then he hurls it wherever it needs to go.

“He’s always just figured it out on his own,” Jay Lucas said. “It has not been, ‘Teach him how to do this.’ It’s just give him opportunities to figure it out himself.”

FRESHMAN EMERGES AS ACE PITCHER

The Lucas family moved to Idaho three years ago from California. All the children are home-schooled, so Jay Lucas called around trying to find an open-minded baseball program for his son.

He found Skyview and Bobo, who said he was impressed with Grayden Lucas’ command, his feel for pitches and his baseball IQ — even as a seventh-grader.

Lucas broke out this spring on a young Skyview squad, quickly taking over as the ace of the staff. He sports a 3-1 record, a 3.55 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 21 ⅔ innings, mixing a sharp curveball with three other pitches.

He turned in perhaps his most impressive outing Thursday, holding the Timberline lineup — arguably the state’s toughest — to one run on three hits in four innings, while striking out five. That led the Hawks to a 2-1 upset at Timberline and handed the Wolves their first conference loss of the season.

“Hitters can’t get comfortable, even in a positive count,” Bobo said. “That’s why his strikeout rate is so high. He will throw a pitcher’s pitch in a hitter’s count, and that’s why he’s been successful.”

But he’s not limited to the mound. He’s played first base, second base and some outfield for the Hawks this season. He’s hitting .273 in 11 at-bats, using his right arm as a brace at the start and end of his swing. But otherwise, the lefty chokes up and slashes through the zone with his left (top) hand.

“I haven’t figured out that many things that I can’t do,” Grayden Lucas said.

Skyview has limited his at-bats because of a nagging wrist injury from a check swing. Bobo said he can’t risk losing his top pitcher at the plate. But he said that Lucas puts his bat barrel on the ball as well as anyone.

“When he starts his swing, it becomes a one-armed swing with a lot of lower body,” Bobo said. “He trusts his lower body and his hips to deliver his hands. That’s what we teach everybody.”

AN INSPIRATION TO OTHERS

Grayden’s baseball career has earned him admirers. Jay Lucas said countless opposing coaches and umpires have approached him, telling how amazing his son is. One even asked if he could film his son fielding fly balls to show to his players.

Capital coach Jake Chandler first saw Grayden Lucas umpire a game for his young son. His team then faced Lucas on April 15, when he handed the Eagles a loss.

“It’s kind of heroic,” Chandler said. “It’s cool to see somebody overcome an obstacle and compete at a high level.

“... He competes, and that’s what any coach wants. It was awesome to watch.”

But Grayden shrugs at the attention. He pitches, hits and turns double plays with one hand simply because he’s never known another way. His love for the sport pushes him to dedicate hours to practicing.

“It came easy to me because I was born like that,” he said. “I did everything with it. … It’s normal for me.”