SAN DIEGO, Calif. — With one phone call, Cory Mazzoni’s life changed.

Late last Saturday night, the 2008 Seneca Valley graduate received a call from Pat Murphy, manager of the Class AAA El Paso Chihuahuas of the San Diego Padres.

“He told me he had some bad news, that he had done an apartment check, that I wasn’t there, that I missed curfew and was being suspended for five games,” Mazzoni said. “But I knew I was there.

“I knew something was up.”

That something was he was being called up — to pitch in the major leagues.

“When he told me the Padres were bringing me up, I immediately thought back to when I was a little kid, playing catch in the yard with my dad,” Mazzoni said.

“This has been my dream ... since I was like, 5 or so.”

What followed that call was a whirlwind. Mazzoni called his parents and girlfriend, getting them out of bed at 1:30 a.m. He caught a flight to San Diego five hours later.

Mazzoni got off the plane, went straight to the ballpark and was in the San Diego bullpen for a 1:35 p.m. game Sunday.

“When that phone rang, I was concerned,” said Keiran Mazzoni, Cory’s mother. “I mean, the phone doesn’t ring at 1:30 in the morning.

“When Cory told me, I just started crying. I couldn’t go back to sleep. I stayed up all night. We decorated our street, May Lane in Evans City, with balloons, signs, letting people know. The entire neighborhood has always supported him.

“Dreams really do come true,” she added.

Her husband, Mark, is a U.S. postal worker. He got home from work at 4 p.m. Sunday and caught a 6:55 p.m. flight to San Diego. Mazzoni’s mother and girlfriend flew out later in the week.

“From the time we got that call, I couldn’t go back to sleep, not until I got out there (to San Diego),” Mazzoni’s father said. “He’s been waiting for this for so long. I had to be there.”

As part of an “initiation” rookies on the Padres go through, Mazzoni had to carry a pink backpack out to the bullpen with snacks for all of the pitchers.

His father videoed that walk and sent it home to Keiran.

“Everyone was laughing at Cory and I felt bad for him at first,” she said. “But he was smiling the whole time. He loved it. He just took it in stride.”

Mazzoni did not pitch in San Diego’s game last Sunday.

“I think they knew I was tired,” Mazzoni said, laughing. “I felt myself nodding off around the fifth inning or so.”

His first two major league appearances were rough ones. Mazzoni allowed a two-run homer to Colby Rasmus in a 9-4 loss to Houston Monday night, then was roughed up for five hits and four runs in the ninth inning of a 14-3 loss to the Astros the following night.

“When they told me to start warming up (Monday), I was nervous until I threw a few pitches in the bullpen,” Mazzoni said. “Then they call me into the game ... As I was jogging toward the mound, I kept thinking, ‘this is really happening.’

“I had the butterflies big-time, a real stomach ache. Then I threw my first pitch for a strike and everything was fine, I felt like I was just playing baseball again.”

Mazzoni came within a pitch of working a scoreless inning. He was ahead 0-2 on Rasmus, who worked the count full before hitting a changeup out of the park.

“I hung it,” Mazzoni admitted. “You do that against these guys, you pay for it. This is still part of the learning experience for me, still part of the journey.”

It’s a journey that’s been going on for years, one that includes:

Going 18-1 with a 1.10 earned run average, 176 strikeouts in 126 innings over his final two years at Seneca Valley.

Spurning the Washington Nationals, who drafted Mazzoni in the 26th round, to accept a scholarship with North Carolina State.

Going 14-14 with 256 strikeouts — seventh most in N.C. State history — over three years before being drafted in the second round by the New York Mets in 2011.

Missing three months of the 2014 season with a strained triceps, an injury Mazzoni suffered in spring training with the Mets that year.

Being traded to San Diego on March 20 of this season.

“When Cory pitched minor league ball for Binghampton (N.Y.), I’d drive six hours there and back to watch his starts,” Mark Mazzoni said. “He pitched Friday games at N.C. State and I’d drive nine hours to Raleigh that day.”

“My husband knows all of Cory’s wins and losses, all of the statistics. I don’t follow that stuff,” Mrs. Mazzoni said. “I know all of the hugs and kisses along the way, how many times I’ve told him I love him.”

Mazzoni was scheduled to make a spring training start the day the Mets dealt him to San Diego.

“Right before the game, I got called into the office,” Mazzoni said. “The general manager was there, our personnel director. When they told me I was traded, I was shocked. I really liked the Mets organization. I was treated well there.

“After a while, I started thinking this could be a fresh start.”

Then he was moved to the bullpen.

“I hated it at first,” Mazzoni said. “Never knowing when I was going to pitch, I’d warm up, sit back down, warm up, sit back down ... I always liked having scheduled starts.

“But I was finding some sudden success out of the bullpen. Just come in, let it loose, give everything I had into an inning ... I kinda liked it.”

Mazzoni was the starting pitcher in 53 of his 71 minor league appearances over the past five years. But after striking out 13 and allowing just one run in 8.1 innings covering six relief outings at El Paso, he was a Padre.

Seneca Valley baseball coach Eric Semega has coached more than 10 Raiders who have been drafted by major league organizations. Mazzoni is the third one — following left-hander Zach Jackson and outfielder Jason Conti — to reach the major leagues.

Mazzoni texted Semega the day he got the call to The Show.

“I had asked him to let me know when it happened,” Semega said. “I’ve stayed close to Cory and his family. I get together with him over Christmas every year and we catch up.

“He’s never been about himself. Cory is such an unassuming guy. He’s not your outgoing, aggressive competitor. He’s a quiet competitor, for sure.”

Semega emphasized that Mazzoni never lost his focus or took his eye off his ultimate target.

“It’s easy for a player to lose focus as he climbs each level, goes through injuries, signing autographs, whatever,” Semega said. “The triceps injury, the ups and downs of pro ball, the bus rideas, nothing ever threw him off course.

“It is so hard to get where he is now, even for a day. He should be proud. I know we’re proud of him.”

Mark Mazzoni felt that pride while waiting for his son to emerge from the hotel before going to the ballpark Tuesday.

“A group of kids saw him walk out and asked for an autograph,” Mark Mazzoni said. “He was signing caps, sleeves, whatever.

“I asked him how that felt. He said, ‘Dad, I’ll never turn one down.’ That’s the kid we raised.”

The kid who is still on a journey.

“I appreciate what it took to get here,” Mazzoni said. “I hope this journey continues for a lot of years to come.”