Generals’ Anthony Avalos prepares for second season in Houston | Advosports

Anthony Avalos didn’t get much playing time during his freshman season at the University of Houston, but he did his best to make the most of his opportunities.

Avalos played in 13 games and made four starts for the Cougars, and was primarily used in a hitting role.

But Avalos still managed to make an impact, as his first hit was a two-run home run against Texas A&M at Blue Bell Park in College Station.

“Up until that point, I had only gotten hit at bats late in blowout games,” he said. “The A&M game was another hit at bat. I think it was the eighth inning. I think it was my first at-bat in a few weeks. I just found the mentality of just getting a good pitch to hit and hitting the ball hard and it worked like that.

Avalos figures to get more playing time in Houston as a sophomore and is spending the summer at shortstop for the Victoria Generals to prepare for a bigger role next season.

“They wanted me to see as many game speed reps as possible,” Avalos said. “I told coach (Michael) Oros I wanted to play as much as possible and get as many at-bats as possible.”

Oros was excited to include Avalos on this year’s team. Avalos played at Pearland High School where Oros’ uncle, David Rogers, is the head coach.

“He’s agile, he gets to balls, he’s very calm,” Oros said. “It makes everything flow. It’s kind of one of those things you can’t teach. It’s there or it’s not and he has it.

Pearland made the state tournament during Avalos’ senior year, but he still found the transition to college baseball difficult.

“The coaches did a great job of handling that and presenting me at the level I was at and the level I needed to be at and not sugar coating it,” Avalos said. “There was no more holding hands once we got to Houston.

“It was a very difficult process to get to where I needed to be. There have been many failures. Lots of failures and lots of embarrassment. I just had to keep showing up and thinking it’s a new day. Reset after each day and eventually I started piling up the days, the days started piling up into weeks and eventually I got to where I needed to be.

Avalos did his part to help the Generals get off to a good start and enjoyed playing with his new teammates.

“Everyone here has the same desire to compete,” he said. “I feel like it’s a universal factor that everyone who plays at this level has. They want to compete and they want to win. They have more fun when they win. If we’re here and we’re playing every day, we might as well win as many games as possible.

Oros wants Avalos in the lineup as much as possible, but wants to make sure he does what’s best for next season in Houston.

“He’s a true shortstop and we’d like him to be out there every day, but we also want to take care of him,” Oros said. “He’s going to have his days off so he doesn’t get exhausted. I told him as long as he comes here and does what we know he can do, he’ll have more sticks than he knows what to do with.