Pitcher Billy Carnline has taken an interesting path into professional baseball.

Originally taken by the New York Yankees in the 48th round of the 2002 amateur draft, Carnline chose to attend Wharton Junior College in his native Texas for two seasons.

He then enrolled at Texas Tech for one semester, long enough to post a 7-3 record with 62 strikeouts for the Red Raiders, and long enough to impress the Toronto Blue Jays, who snagged him in the 12th round in this year's draft.

Carnline's aggressive approach - not to mention a live fastball that can reach 94 mph on the radar gun - has also impressed Auburn Doubledays' pitching coach Tom Signore.

"He's got a good fastball," Signore said. "He has life on the ball, and he has an excellent change-up. We need to find a viable breaking pitch for him, but he's got the talent to develop a breaking pitch of any kind. He's going to be fine."

In six appearances, Carnline has posted a 2-0 record with a 2.60 ERA, with 18 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings. Although he has made a couple of starts, the bullpen is Carnline's home for now. He earned a hold with 1 2/3 scoreless innings in Friday's 3-2 win over Vermont.

"I found out (recently) that I'd be moving to the bullpen," Carnline said. "I'd love to start. That's what I've always done. I'd love to continue to start, but I'll do whatever the organization needs right now. Hopefully, I'll get back to that starting role someday."

In a developmental league like the NY-Penn, Carnline may get another crack at starting fairly soon.

"Things always change in the NY-Penn League," Signore said. "One week, a guy could be out of the pen, the next week he's a starting pitcher. They have to have the flexibility to be able to change, and he's shown he can. He's started, he's relieved, and he's done well at both."

Carnline has experienced a couple of firsts over the past two weeks. On July 7, he went through his first 20-inning game, Auburn's 5-5 suspended contest with Batavia.

Interestingly, Carnline wasn't one of the 14 hurlers to toe the mound in that game. Instead he was in the stands charting pitches.

"That was a definite first," he said. "I wish we could've finished the game, the way the two teams were battling. Of course, I wasn't out there playing those 21 innings. I'm sure they were tired."

Speaking of tired, Carnline also got to enjoy his first off day of the season on July 12, albeit an off day that got off to a late start.

"We didn't get back from Lowell until about 5 a.m.," he said. "I ended up sleeping till 3 p.m. It was nice, once I did wake up, to be able to lay around and relax, to not have to worry about too many things."