N.C. State recruit Matt Tenuta, a lefthanded pitcher from Apex High who led the Triangle in strikeouts this season, has already signed with the Kansas City Royals, who selected him in the 25th round (763rd overall) of this week's 2012 Major League Baseball Draft.

Tenuta's father Jon is the linebackers coach at N.C. State, and when the latter turned down Illinois this offseason, he said in a statement that watching his son play college baseball was a reason why. By signing with Kansas City, Matt forgoes his college eligibility and should report to the minor leagues within the coming weeks.

In total, four former area players and four current ones were selected in the draft.

The North Carolina high school baseball player of the year will be matriculating to N.C. State after all. Carlos Rodon (pictured above left, signing autographs for his teammates after winning the state title), a lefthanded pitcher who led Holly Springs to the state 4-A championship this season, will not sign with the Milwaukee Brewers, according to his mother Julie Rodon.

Carlos was drafted by the Brewers in the 16th round (491st overall) of the Major League Baseball Draft in June. All drafted players had until midnight tonight to reach an agreement with their respective MLB team.

"He told us Saturday that he did not even want to pursue anything else (but college). He was done," Julie Rodon said. "He waited a long time and then he just decided that school was the better route, so that's what he decided on."

He was (somehow) only a second-team all-conference performer, but Green Hope senior Max Povse became the first player in Falcons history to be selected in the Major League Baseball Draft.

Clayton High School pitcher Jason Creasy has been drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates today in the eighth round of the annual MLB First-Year Player Draft. Creasy, a 6-foot-4, right-handed pitcher was the 242nd player taken overall.
He was the first Triangle-area prep player to be selected in the draft. Creasy helped lead Clayton to the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference championship this spring and was named the league's pitcher of the year. The Comets advanced to the third round of the playoffs before bowing out.
Creasy, a 19-year-old, has signed with N.C. State. He can elect to sign with the Pirates or attend State, but must sign with the Pirates by Aug. 15 or he becomes ineligible for the draft for three years.
We'll have more on his selection later tonight.

You'd be hard-pressed to find another North Carolina high school senior capable of having the kind of eight-day stretch Holly Springs' Carlos Rodon might pull off this week.

Cary grad Mike Rooney was selected in the 30th round (898th overall) by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2010 MLB Draft. Rooney is a senior shortstop at UNC-Wilmington.

In his prep career for the Imps, Rooney batted .446 his senior year and led Cary to the Tri-Seven Conference title. With the Seahawks, he was recently named the Colonial Athletic Association's Defensive Player of the Year after only recording nine errors all year — three in his last 36 games.

He set school records in putouts in a season and career.

Rooney batted .282 this year for Wilmington and stole 14 bases.

Another Cary-area selection was former Green Hope baseball player Brett Eibner. Eibner played for Green Hope before moving to Houston's Woodlands High School in Texas.

Eibner a junior at the University of Arkansas, was selected with the 54th pick overall in the second round by the Kansas City Royals. He batted .337 with 21 homers and 69 RBI.

The Los Angeles Dodgers took Duke shortstop Jake Lemmerman in the fifth
round of MLB draft with the 172nd pick on Tuesday.

Lemmerman, a junior, led the Blue Devils with a .335 batting average and
11 home runs in 218 at-bats this season.

The Colorado Rockies are collecting ACC quarterbacks. The Rockies took
N.C. State's Russell Wilson in the fourth round of the Major League
Baseball draft today, less than 24 hours after making Clemson's Kyle
Parker their first-round pick.

Wilson, a junior in baseball eligibility, jumped up the Rockies' draft
board to No. 140th overall — going before most draft experts had him
pegged which potentially leads to a  difficult decision for the Wolfpack
football star.

The long, strange trip that is the Major League Baseball draft continues at noon today with 29 rounds plus supplemental picks and compensatory picks.

In short, the "English Patient" and "Titanic" are infomercials compared to this annual epic which goes another 20 rounds on Wednesday.

North Carolina junior Dustin Ackley, a projected mid-first round draft pick at the beginning of the season, has climbed to near the top of the charts with a sensational junior season.

Ackley, who was named the ACC player of the year earlier this week, has risen into the top five in most projections and is now being talked about as a potential No. 2 overall pick -- by the Seattle Mariners.