AP File Photo Patrick Forbes, son of Dunkirk’s Lukas Forbes, was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 31st pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday.

Patrick Forbes threw his final pitch for the University of Louisville at the College World Series last month in Omaha, Nebraska.

On Sunday night, he became property of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Forbes was the 31st pick of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the National League West franchise.

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound right-hander is the son of Lukas Forbes, a 1990 graduate of Dunkirk High School.

Forbes is the highest-drafted Louisville player since catcher/outfielder Henry Davis was taken first overall in 2021 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and is the 10th player in program history to be drafted in the first round. Davis, who got a $6.5 million signing bonus, is currently on the Pirates’ roster as a catcher/right-fielder. He has appeared in 46 games and is batting .198.

Louisville finished 42-24 this season, including 15-15 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cardinals lost in the ACC Tournament, but won the Nashville Regional and hosted a Super Regional, where they beat Miami.

In the College World Series, Louisville lost to Oregon State, then beat Arizona and Oregon State before seeing its season end at the hands of Coastal Carolina.

For the season, Forbes made 15 appearances — all starts — and owned a 4-2 record. In 71 1/3 innings, he allowed 59 hits, struck out 117 and walked 34. His ERA was 4.42. In 2024, he was a member of the USA Collegiate National Team and a member of the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team.

At Bowling Green High School, he lettered four years in baseball, highlighted by being named Mr. Baseball in Kentucky in 2022. Rated as the No. 1 shortstop and No. 1 overall player in Kentucky, he was ranked the No. 53 shortstop in the nation by Perfect Game and was a MaxPreps First-Team All-American.

Forbes wasn’t the only player with Western New York connections to hear their name called in the draft.

SUNY Niagara ace Matt Barr, a Cheektowaga High School graduate, was selected in the fifth round with the 149th pick by the Minnesota Twins.

With the Thunderwolves this season, Barr went 10-0 with a 1.74 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 57 innings pitched.

St. Bonaventure right-hander Michael Salina, a Webster Schroeder High School graduate, was selected in the fourth round with the 130th pick by the San Diego Padres.

Named by Perfect Game and D1Baseball as the top MLB Draft prospect in the Atlantic 10 entering this season, Salina led the Bonnies with 64 strikeouts in 58.1 innings of work in his Bonaventure debut in 2024.

Salina, who hit triple digits on the radar gun during fall ball, averaged nearly 10 strikeouts per nine and ranked top-10 in the conference for punchouts during his first season with the program with some of the most electric stuff in the A-10.

Injury cut short his 2025 campaign as he struck out 26 batters in 17.1 innings of work over four starts. He underwent Tommy John surgery this spring and will now continue his rehab process in the Padres organization.

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For the third consecutive season, a Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League alumni has been selected in the first round of the draft, and for the first time since 2020, more than one player was picked in the opening round on Sunday evening.

The Minnesota Twins selected 2023 Mohawks shortstop Marek Houston from Wake Forest with the 16th pick in the first round. The very next pick, the Chicago Cubs selected Houston’s Wake Forest teammate, outfielder Ethan Conrad, who played for the Saugerties Stallions in 2023 and 2024.

Houston was a late arrival to the Mohawks in 2023 as he was the starting shortstop with Wake Forest as they were playing all the way up to the semi-finals in the College World Series in Omaha that season.

Marek hit .429 for the Mohawks in the regular season, and including playoffs, had a .370 average in 21 games played with four doubles, a triple, 14 RBIs and 16 runs scored. He only struck out four times in his 54 at-bats and made many remarkable plays on the field as the Mohawks went on to defeat the Elmira Pioneers for the PGCBL championship that season.

This season at Wake Forest, Houston hit .354 in 61 games with 14 doubles, 15 home runs, 66 RBI, 61 runs scored, 19 stolen bases and had an OPS of 1.055. On March 7, he had a 10-RBI game against Notre Dame and was named the Golden Spikes Player of the Week.

Conrad played parts of two seasons in the PGCBL with Saugerties, initially joining the league out of Marist in 2023. He batted .330 with 30 hits in 33 games for the Stallions, including five doubles, 17 runs scored and 15 RBIs.

He split the summer of 2024 between Saugerties and the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In his second season with the Stallions, Conrad batted .469 with five home runs, 19 RBIs, 23 hits and 16 runs scored in just 13 games.

After two years with Marist, Conrad joined Houston at Wake Forest for the 2025 season. He appeared in 21 games for the Demon Deacons and hit .372 with a 1.238 OPS, seven home runs and 27 RBIs.

Houston and Conrad join Griff O’Ferrall (Auburn ’21), who was selected 32nd overall last year by the Baltimore Orioles and Matt Shaw (Amsterdam ’21), who went 13th in 2023 to the Chicago Cubs.

In 2020, Justin Foscue (Amsterdam ’18) was picked 14th overall by Texas and Jordan Westburg (Elmira ’18) went 30th to the Baltimore Orioles, both out of Mississippi State.