Mustangs’ catcher, Victor Anguiano, has a history of bypassing the easier path in exchange for something harder, but more satisfying. When he was young he found he was good at soccer, but baseball was where his heart was. And though baseball wasn’t easy, it was the difficulty that motivated him.

Anguiano is like that in a lot of aspects of his life. He has always had a knack for english, but in college decided he wanted to major in biochem. When he tore his posterior labrum there was a surgery that would have fixed the injury, but he decided to work through it because the recovery would have taken him out of the sport he loves most for almost a year. The same is true when he decided to go to University of California, Davis with the potential to play ball instead of going to a junior college to improve.

He wanted to work hard and prove himself like he always had, like his favorite character Naruto does.

A phrase that always stuck with Anguiano was something one of Naruto’s apprentices once said. “‘I can’t take the short path, because I know Naruto won’t be waiting for me at the end of it’,” he paraphrased. “I always thought that was so cool. So I was always like ‘You’re not going to find me at the end of the shorter path.’”

When he got to Davis though, Anguiano found that going to a junior college might have been the harder, but more satisfying path and he had missed it. The Davis coaches had seemed interested in him in the summer before his freshman year, but when he found himself a semester into it and not playing ball, Anguiano realized his mistake.

“I was miserable at Davis,” he admitted. “I thought I could live without [baseball], but I couldn’t.”

Anguiano doesn’t regret the experience though. It humbled him, brought him back down to earth, and gave him a chance to improve himself on the longer and harder path. Now, he’s focused on becoming the person that others have always seen in him.

Anguiano has always had a strong support from his family, teachers, and friends. His high school English teacher, Andrea Murphy, was always challenging him to stay focused in class and supported him on the field.

“Once it becomes hard, that’s when you get engaged,” Murphy once told him about his work ethic.

Anguiano has always been motivated to do better by the people in his support group, but within the past few years he has lost quite a few of them. His teacher Murphy, his friends’ grandfather Windell whom he also referred to as grandpa, and a friend of his Marcos Huerta have all passed. And though it hurts a lot, Anguiano just tries to stay focused on the support they gave him and doing the best that he can.

“I dedicated this season to them,” he said. And though it hasn’t been his best it’s in line with the long and hard path he always been so dedicated to. “I’m a work in progress, but I’m doing my best.”

In spite of his season parts of his season, some of which he refers to as a “slump”, others recognize his hard work and positivity.

Batting coach, Chad Highberger said, “He works his butt off. No matter what happened that day off the field, he’s gonna show up every day and be that same guy on the field,” and that his teammates appreciate having him “the same Vic that’s always pumped up and energized and ready to play.”

Anguiano’s already focused on next season. “Next year’s gonna be my year for sure,” Anguiano he said. Just like his favorite character, Naruto, he plans to work hard for it.