Alex Capaul's wakeup call on Wednesday came from the big leagues.

His phone rang shortly before 8:30 a.m. On the other end was Jeff Mousser, a scout with the Arizona Diamond-backs.

"He said 'Congrat-ulations, you're a Diamondback,'" Capaul said.

Capaul, the former Lake City High pitcher who just completed his senior season at the University of Hawaii, was drafted in the 43rd round by the D-backs. He was the 1,294th selection overall in the 50-round draft.

"I was watching (the draft) online, and I fell asleep about the 40th round," Capaul said from Honolulu, where he rents a house with some Hawaii teammates. "I woke up to a phone call from him. It was pretty nice to wake up to."

Capaul, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound right-hander, won't waste any time beginning his professional baseball career. He is expected to leave this morning for Scottsdale, Ariz., for a physical and a mini-camp of sorts with the other Diamondbacks draftees. Then, he said, he'll be shipped to one of Arizona's farm clubs in Missoula (Rookie League, Pioneer League) or Yakima (short-season class A Northwest League).

Capaul learned of Arizona's interest in a meeting with Mousser in February. On Tuesday, when rounds 2-30 of the draft were conducted, he also heard from the Marlins and Angels. And early Wednesday morning, when rounds 31-50 were conducted, he got calls from the Astros, Twins and Blue Jays expressing their interest.

The first of those calls came at 5 a.m. his time - three hours earlier than Pacific Daylight Time.

Capaul struck out 109 in a total of 159 1/3 innings at Hawaii, with a career record of 10-10 and a 6.58 ERA. His best year was as a junior, when he was 6-2 with a 5.65 ERA.

Capaul helped Lake City win the state 5A baseball title in 2007.

His first two years in Hawaii were hampered by injuries.

As a freshman, he developed inflammation in his elbow, but that wasn't the worst of it.

During batting practice late in that season, he was shagging balls at second base when he was struck in the right jaw by a line drive. His jaw was wired shut for two months, and he missed summer ball.

Then, that September, he underwent an emergency appendectomy.

Capaul said it took about a year to get comfortable pitching again.

Last fall while he was pitching, a teammate hit a liner right back up the middle.

"I didn't even see it - I just put my glove in front of my head and caught it," Capaul recalled. "That made my heart race a little bit."

Naturally, in true teammate fashion, when he showed up for practice the next day, there was a helmet placed in his locker - equipped with a face mask, to boot.

Capaul, who played summer ball in Wenatchee after his sophomore year and in Humboldt, Calif., after his junior season, is two classes short of getting his degree in psychology. He says he plans to get his degree, perhaps this fall after baseball season is over.

Capaul, who played with Coeur d'Alene High players on the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen American Legion baseball team, said he was motivated this year by the death of Devon Austin, the former Coeur d'Alene High and Lums player. Austin, a catcher drafted in the 45th round in 2010 by the Chicago Cubs, died in a car crash last September outside of Twin Falls, where he was playing baseball as a freshman at the College of Southern Idaho.

"He was a good family friend," Capaul said. "So having that tragedy gave me the extra motivation to work harder than everyone else, and hopefully live the dream that he had, that was taken away from him."