As a sophomore, Joey Lewis came one game from winning a national championship.

As a junior, he finished one home run shy of becoming only the sixth Diamond Dog to hit 20 home runs in a season.

There will be no senior season since he signed a professional contract with the Kansas City Royals. But Lewis leaves the University of Georgia satisfied.

“I can’t say I have any regrets from Georgia,” Lewis, a catcher from Fayetteville, said in a telephone interview. “We laid it out all on the line for those three games and it didn’t work out, but that’s just how baseball is. I have zero regrets at Georgia. It was the best time of my life and I met some of my best friends there.”

Lewis, drafted in the 41st round of the 2009 MLB entry draft, said he never doubted he would have his named called, even if he didn’t hear it.

“My parents watched it online, I didn’t want to watch it,” he said. “I was in the swimming pool in the back and they came out and told me I got drafted.

“I was confident I was gonna get picked up somewhere along the line, just from what I had heard. On draft day, somebody said they would pick me up and all I was looking for was the chance and I got it.”

He quickly signed a contract and was assigned to the Idaho Falls Chukars, the Royals advanced rookie league team.

“As soon as they offered, I was ready,” he said. “It’s always been my dream as a kid to play professional ball and there are guys out there who didn’t get drafted and I figured thiscould be my only opportunity and there was no telling what would have happened next year if I went back to school. I just wanted to pursue my dream really as soon as I could.”

Lewis, who is now in Arizona at a five-week Royals instructional camp, didn’t bring any expectations about his first full season as a professional.

“I am going there with an open mind, and I’m going out there and I have five weeks to get better so I am going to use that to my advantage,” he said.

“I told them as long as I’m on the diamond, I don’t care where I’m playing.”

Despite being one of 11 Diamond Dogs to be drafted last season and having former teammates – most notably former shortstop Gordon Beckham – in the professional ranks, Lewis has refrained from asking for advise about his new situation, and facing the tough road how he wants.

“I have kept in contact with everybody, but I am taking it as it comes. I want to experience this my way, not somebody else’s.”