SAN ANTONIO — Cole Phillips was dealing out hugs like they were fastballs from his right arm.

The Boerne, Texas native celebrated with hundreds of friends and family the moment he became a professional baseball player. The Atlanta Braves were the team that made Phillips' dream a reality, selecting him in the second round of the 2022 Major League Baseball draft.

“I didn't know how I was gonna react," Phillips said. "I was pumped. Seeing my mom that emotional was super exciting. There's just a lot of different emotions, hard to explain.”

Phillips' selection came nearly four months after he tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in a game on March 29. 

“He knew on the last batter that he ended up striking out that he was hurt," said Cole's mom, Jennifer. "We could tell by the way he walked off the mound that something was not right."

Less than two weeks later, Phillips underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. Suddenly his MLB draft stock went from a potential first-round pick to a complete unknown.

"My husband and I were more emotional than he was," Jennifer Phillips said. "We had to take a cue from him in that regard. He knew it was going to be okay, and he almost had to console us.”

Once he was cleared for physical activity, Phillips did exactly what he'd done before to make himself a top prospect: he went to work.

“He knew that was a blip on the radar and not anything that was gonna hold him down," Jennifer Phillips said. 

Four days of rehab each week in Houston. Long weekends back home in Boerne.

“It's been chaotic. It's been very time consuming, but it was completely worth it," Phillips said. "Every athlete is gonna go through adversities in a career. I was prepared to handle this and I know that my career is gonna be very long in the future. One little step back doesn't mean too much.”

There was still some anxiety on draft night, however, as the picks came off the board and the minutes of waiting turned into hours. But no one at the draft party seemed to care, and after 56 other picks and four-and-a-half hours, it was time to celebrate.

"It was so much more surreal once it actually popped up on the TV, because you're never too sure," Phillips said. "The fact that people decided to stay and be here for that moment was pretty special. It lets me know I have a good group of people around me.”

Friends who've been with him since little league, along with the family who believed that his baseball dream would come true.

“It was definitely a vision ever since I was a little kid," Phillips said. "As the years progressed, I knew it was going to come true one day. It happened to come sooner than probably most expected, but I knew I'd be in this position at some point.”