Colton Cowser still has the text saved in his phone.

He filled in the contact information to avoid another mishap.

Before the Orioles made their selection at No. 5 in the 2021 draft, Cowser received a call from a number he didn’t recognize and declined it. He had no idea that Orioles executive vice president Mike Elias was trying to reach him.

“I was told the Baltimore Orioles were drafting me, so I was like anticipating a Baltimore area code phone number,” Cowser recalled yesterday. “Instead I got a Houston one, and I was like, well, I’m not gonna answer. I get so many Houston calls because my area code is Houston. I get so many spam calls a day.

“I showed my friend and he’s like, ‘Don’t answer that.’ So I was just like, ‘I’m not gonna answer that.’”

It makes for an amusing anecdote. The embarrassment has faded.

Elias had to message Cowser with an introduction and request that the Sam Houston State outfielder give him “a buzz.”

Cowser held up his phone yesterday to reveal the draft night text, another text about an option, and a playoff celebration photo. That’s it for the Elias correspondence.

“I honestly had no idea,” Cowser said of the Orioles’ plans to select him. “I didn’t really know where I was going until pick three. I got a text from my agent saying the Orioles were drafting me. But leading up to that, I didn’t talk to the Orioles at all. I didn’t have a Zoom call or anything like that. But then about 10 days, they reached out and I came up here for a pre-draft workout. Did that, got to talk to Mike, got to talk to a couple of scouts. So it went well, and here we are.”

Cowser celebrated with family and friends, including pitcher Ty Madden, a high school teammate selected 32nd by the Tigers out of the University of Texas.

“He was actually supposed to get picked before me and ended up going after me,” Cowser said. “We did a little draft party together. We went to high school together. Had some of our high school friends, college friends from both schools and both our families, so that was cool.”

Though he’s got bragging rights, Cowser said he doesn’t exercise them with Madden.

“It was a long night because for whatever reason he ended up dropping in the draft,” Cowser said. “Really cool night, though.”

Cowser was projected to go in the 10-to-16 pick range. He attended a pre-draft workout with the Royals, who had the seventh selection, a few days before coming to Baltimore. The Diamondbacks, at No. 6, contacted him, as well.

“So all of a sudden, picks five, six and seven reached out, and my agent was like, if something were to happen, you’d be under slot there,” Cowser said. “And that’s what happened.”

These memories come back to Cowser each year as the draft approaches. Nothing much before it.

“I just feel like there’s so much going on in the present day,” he said. “I think when draft day comes around, like yeah, I think about when I got drafted, but I don’t think really leading up to it. It’s more so just a little blimp on the radar of, like, ‘Oh, today’s draft day. I remember when that happened.’ But I’d say only really on the specific day rather than what leads up to it.

“It was awesome, dream come true. It was one of those things that the anticipation, the buildup, the whole prior year and couple years leading up to that, and being able to almost like breathe a little bit after getting drafted, and then realizing, OK, now it’s come to get going, this was a really good feeling. I don’t really think there’s anything that you can emulate in your life to describe it.”

Cowser didn’t mind that his agent broke the news before his name was called. The spoiler alert didn’t ruin the moment.

“I think it was cool to know,” he said. “But I definitely missed Mike’s phone call.”