Former Manzano High slugger Brian Cavazos-Galvez has the baseball pedigree and gaudy stats to be a one-hit wonder for the Lobos.

If he can learn to control what his coach calls "the monsters in his head" that force him to "try too hard" at the plate, a promising season awaits.

"I've seen him at his best and it's a beautiful thing," said first-year University of New Mexico baseball coach Ray Birmingham.

Coach should know. Birmingham tutored Cavazos-Galvez the past two seasons at New Mexico Junior College. The ex-Monarch and former Tribune baseball athlete of the year helped lead NMJC to 56-8-1 record and a national runner-up finish this past season.

In two seasons at NMJC, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Cavazos-Galvez batted a combined .494 with 20 home runs, 88 doubles and 153 RBIs.

The junior transfer might play just one season in the UNM outfield if all goes well.

"He has a lot of pro tools," Birmingham said. "He hits for power, he can run and he has a gun from the outfield."

That combination of skills, together with a strong work ethic, bodes well for the Lobos as the five NMJC transplants who came along with Birmingham look to build UNM into a winner.

"Coach is the main reason I came home," said Cavazos-Galvez, whose mother Cynthia Cavazos and many relatives still live in Albuquerque. "Growing up here, I used to hear all the stuff about UNM - that they can't win this or that - but I think coach is going to change all that.

"He's a winner. He's shown what he can do, and I'm a believer."

Cavazos-Galvez is expected to start in right field when UNM takes the field for its season opener against Eastern Michigan at 3 p.m. Friday at Isotopes Park. He'll bat seventh in the order most likely but could move up to the No. 4 hole as his hitting progresses this season, Birmingham said.

"Brian has a chance to make a major impact here," Birmingham said. "If he can just learn to relax and be a patient hitter, I think he's going to tear up this league."

He's already tearing up the baseball in practice. He sent one poor practice ball well beyond the 380-foot wall in left-center field. It eventually landed on top of the Davalos Center building south of The Pit.

It's that tape-measure home run potential that has Birmingham and major league scouts excited.

Cavazos-Galvez said he dreams about playing in the big leagues.

Just like his father did.

His dad was a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1985) and Detroit Tigers (1986). Balvino Galvez also spent time in Albuquerque with the Triple-A Dukes.

"I still remember hanging out at the stadium in the locker room," Cavazos-Galvez said. "I was about 5 years old at the time.

"I remember thinking `This is my dad's workplace.' Who wouldn't want to have a job like that?"

Brian says he has been estranged from his father since he was 8 years old after his father left to play baseball in Japan.

But he still feels the pressure from family back in the Dominican Republic on his father's side to live up to his baseball heritage.

"It's there," he said of the pressure. "It makes me proud and happy, but it's not something I think about a lot."

Cavazos-Galvez said his first priority is to help the Lobos become a dominant baseball program.

Coach Birmingham talks about developing a swagger. A can-do attitude.

"The first thing we have to do is win," Cavazos-Galvez said. "Scouts don't want to come see a losing team. If we win, the other stuff will take care of itself."