You have to be careful when you play around with catcher’s equipment.

The summer before he started high school, Brett Auerbach was playing on a feeder team for Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, and he decided to throw on the mask and chest protector on a lark. The coach, who also served as the coach for the high school freshman team, took notice.

“We went to tryouts for the high school team, and there really weren’t a lot of catchers trying out,” recalled Auerbach, now a 19-year-old catcher for the Bend Elks. “I didn’t even say I was a catcher, but they’re like, ‘Oh, you catch!’ And I’m like, ‘I guess, sure.’”

And, except for his first year at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, Auerbach has spent his time behind home plate ever since.

“It doesn’t get boring, for sure, because I touch the ball every play,” Auerbach said. “I like controlling the game, and I like being a leader. I like that aspect of it. You have to be smart, and you have to think ahead. There’s a lot of thinking that goes on, and I kind of like that.”

Now that he has completed his time at Saddleback, a two-year school, Auerbach will be starting his junior year at Alabama in the fall. But he started his summer by getting a taste of the frenzy of the Major League Baseball draft, which was held early last month.

“I kind of knew the possibility of me being drafted was pretty high, after talking with multiple teams and stuff,” Auerbach said. “I was kind of looking to go late on the second day, so that’s like the 10th round, or early the third day, so the 10th-15th (round). And once it didn’t happen, I was like, I could probably still get drafted, I’m probably going to be going to school unless something crazy happens.”

Auerbach said he and his dad watched some of the early rounds of the draft together, but he stopped monitoring the proceedings quite as closely after the 15th round came and went. He did not notice immediately when he was taken by the Colorado Rockies in the 40th and final round of the draft, and first learned that he had been drafted on Twitter.

“My phone started blowing up, everyone started texting me, ‘Oh, congrats,’” recounted Auerbach, who had decided before the draft that he would continue with college ball if he was not drafted by the 15th round or so.

Although many of his friends and acquaintances rushed to congratulate him, Auerbach said the Rockies front office seemed to realize his chances of signing with the team were slim.

“I already knew (I’d been drafted), and then I got a call five minutes later,” Auerbach recounted. “They knew I wasn’t going to sign, really, so they were just like, ‘Hey, good luck.”

Still, Auerbach, the only player on the current Elks roster to be drafted in 2018, said he was not too disappointed that he was taken in a later round.

“I’m fine either way — it’s kind of a win-win,” Auerbach said of the option to sign with a professional team or play Division I baseball in the SEC. “It’s an honor (to be drafted), for sure, because it’s my dream to play in the big leagues. It’s every little kid’s dream, I think. And so to see, wow, I could really go play pro ball if I chose to right now, is pretty cool.”

But instead of playing pro ball, Auerbach is spending the summer with the Elks. Through Monday, he had played in 14 games, batting a light .150 but walking eight times in 48 plate appearances.

“I came up to Bend because my grandparents live here, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to play a little summer baseball,” Auerbach said. “I came just wanting to play more, play more baseball. Swing a wood bat a little bit. Experience kind of a professional-type schedule. We play every day, we have to travel and hop on the bus. I’m just trying to improve every day, really.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0305, vjacobsen@bendbulletin.com