Corey Thompson saw the USA Baseball representative speaking to his father Scott prior to Corey’s playing in a recent tournament game and thought the conversation was just polite small talk. So he shrugged it off.

“Didn’t think anything of it,” said Thompson of the USA Baseball Olympic East tournament game encounter.

Only later that June 29 night, around midnight, did Thompson, 16, and a rising junior at Apex High, find out that the talk was about his possibly being selected for the 36-player USA Baseball Youth National Team Trials.

“I was shocked,” said Thompson of a series of late-night phone calls that finally confirmed his being named. “I was stressing bad because it was one of the last nights and as soon as I found out, a bunch of stress came right off of me.”

Thompson, a third baseman, and Mac Williamson, a catcher from Wake Forest, were the only members selected from the North Carolina team that participated in the weeklong tournament that essentially served as an Eastern U.S. tryout camp for the national team trials. USA Baseball also conducted a Junior Olympic West tournament.

The USA Baseball Youth National Team Trials, for players ages 16-and-under, run June 22-28 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. After that camp, the top 18 players will be selected for the USA Youth National Team that will play in the Youth Pan American Championships in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Aug. 4-13.

Thompson knew earlier in the week at the East tournament that he was under evaluation based on his workout, but “whenever they said they were going to give a final evaluation on me, I felt a little stressed by that,” he admitted. “But I had done my thing for the whole tournament and figured if I just went out and did my thing I could do it.”

To be one of 36 players selected from more than 2,600 players competing in the East and West tournaments has proven to Thompson that he can play at a higher level. He admits that before making the trials, playing for the Carolina Cubs, a showcase team that plays in front of college coaches, was making him try too hard.

“It’s kind of like I don’t have to go out there and impress them as much anymore,” said Thompson, who also plays first base, shortstop and does some pitching. “Now that I have made the trials, I have got some more coaches looking at me, and they already know what I can do.”

But do not expect Thompson, who hit .395 with four homers and 36 runs batted in this spring for Apex High, to slack off.

“I’d say I’m a student of the game because you’re always learning. If you don’t the game will humble you real fast,” said Thompson, who has essentially spent his summer playing baseball for Apex High in the extended high school summer league, the showcase team and the North Carolina team that competed in the East tournament.

Thompson, a native of Greenville who is listed as 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, has been playing baseball since the afternoon about 10 years ago when his father took him outside, handed him a tobacco stick and pitched rocks to him.

“He told me to just watch the rocks hit the stick,” Thompson said. “My mom wasn’t too happy about that.”

Nearly six years later, Thompson was playing for the South Wake Storm, a local travelling team that qualified for a national tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y. The young Thompson was chosen to participate in a home run hitting contest prior to tourney play. He won the title with five homers in the final.

“I was like ‘Cool, just my night,’” he said.

He then went on to hit .841 for the tournament and was the winning pitcher in the championship game.

“After that tournament, I was like ‘Oh, wow, I can do something with this,’” he said. Thompson still has two years left in his prep career and plenty to learn, but believes the constant exposure to such a high level of baseball talent, especially in the area, can only improve his worth.

“In the Tri-Seven [during the high school season], you’re usually having to face pitchers who throw in the mid-80s with good curve ball and off-speed pitches,” he said. “You’re going to see that kind of thing in college, so when you see that in high school on a consistent basis, you’re only going to improve.

“My freshman year I struggled because I had not seen that kind of pitching. You also have to want to improve, and that’s what I’m always trying to do.”

Apparently people are taking notice.