Just three years after Amarillo College debuted its baseball program, the team has already started to pick up traction.
The team came away with a winning record in 2024, its second season, and developed a number of talented players who will play at four-year programs. The most high-profile player on the roster, however, is superstar centerfielder Gerardo Prado, a product of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Listed at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Prado is an impressive athlete who recorded eye-popping stats as a freshman under coach Brandon Rains. The Amarillo College standout signed to continue his career at Oklahoma, where he will play for Skip Johnson in the SEC. But the sophomore’s teammates know Prado as much more than a baseball player.
In addition to becoming one of the Badgers’ best players, Prado has also started to show his personality around his teammates as the group continues to grow closer.
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On the field
While Amarillo College has a talented roster, Prado’s elite skill set increases the group’s potential to play for a conference championship.
As a freshman, the future Sooner recorded a .402 batting average in conference play, the highest mark on the team. With elite size and athleticism, backed by a strong statistical output, it is easy to see why Division I programs were interested in the Badgers’ star.
Prep Baseball Report even named Prado one of the top 40 junior college baseball prospects in the nation.
Prado hasn’t gotten to this point by accident, however, crediting his coaches and teammates for helping him improve. Rains also noted that Prado has worked hard to improve on the field and become friends with his teammates away from the diamond since arriving in Amarillo.
“I’ve been preparing myself since I got here,” Prado said. “As a freshman, I played almost every single game, so that helped me a lot. … The coaching staff is really good here. So they help us out a lot. It’s something that I really like about this program.”
Prado said that of the offers he had to play at the next level, he chose Oklahoma because of his relationship with the coaching staff and his excitement to play in the SEC.
Off the field
While Prado’s attracts plenty of attention for his efforts on the field, his teammates have seen a different side of the superstar centerfielder.
Prado and his teammates are aware of the rankings and recognition that the future Sooner has received recently, but according to Badgers infielder Aiden Young, Prado has remained level-headed through it all.
“The thing that you’ll never see with Gerardo is that he is a goofball,” Young said. “You forget that these guys are just dudes. You see every edit, you see every picture of like, top 50, or whatever. You kind of label that as the kid. I mean, the fact that I’ve gotten to know Prado, especially the last two years. He’s so much more than a picture on Instagram, so much more than a stat. The guy, his personality is infectious, he brings a lot to the table. And then, yeah, he puts balls in the courthouse. That’s just the coolest part, but that’s not the biggest thing that he is, and it’s cool to see it for more than just that.”
Prado becoming closer with his teammates was part of an important offseason that saw the entire group become a more complete unit. Prado is one of seven players Badgers’ returnees to earn all-conference honors in 2024.
With one more season left in Amarillo, Prado is looking to help his team make history before heading to Norman for a career in the SEC.
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