But in the fall, he is not sure what to expect.

“I just told him when he gets to spring training just take it all in and enjoy it to the max because you deserve to be there,” Macklin says, recalling the conversation.

Even after talking to Macklin, a former Aggie and 12th round pick by the Oakland A’s in 2011, Riley thinks it is wise to seek even more advice from former Aggies.

He reaches out to C.J. Beatty, a 26th round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009. Beatty advises him to be himself, work hard and show the coaches you want to be there. Let your talent do the rest. Riley also reaches out to Nick Rogers, a former Aggies ace and teammate who plays for the Kansas City Royals Double-A affiliate in northwest Arkansas.

For Riley, it is refreshing to know that despite going to a school not known nationwide for his baseball prowess, there are Aggies out there he can call on for words of wisdom.

“When you’re a player at A&T, it gives you hope,” Riley said. “Before I got there it was good to see guys in the program like Jeremy Jones and Charlie Gamble get recognized for putting up numbers. I looked up to them. When you’re coming from an HBCU and chasing a dream, it gives you drive to keep pursuing that dream because you know guys have made it coming out of A&T.”

Riley is an Efland, N.C., native where he ends his Orange High School career as a two-time All-State performer and the Class 2-A Player of the Year in 2008. He fields offers from schools that play in power conferences but those schools routinely tell him he can sit three years before competing for a starting position.

When A&T recruits him, he gets assurances that he can compete for a starting position the moment he steps on campus.

After sitting down with his parents and mentors, Riley signs with A&T. “If you can play the scouts will find you. Just put up the numbers and they’ll find you,” Riley recalls then-head coach Keith Shumate telling him during the recruiting process.

Riley lives up to his end of the bargain. Riley starts his collegiate career in 2009 and concludes it 2012 by posting a career batting average of .354 with 19 home runs and 158 RBI. As a junior in 2011, he leads the nation in toughest to strikeout with just four strikeouts in 207 at-bats. In fact, he strikes out only 23 times in 786 career at-bats as an Aggie.

“It’s so funny because I get this question all the time. I couldn’t tell you why,” Riley said about why he does not strikeout. “The best I can tell you is God blessed me with good eye-hand coordination. I never work on my two-strike approach. I never shorten my stance with two strikes. I don’t do any of those things. It’s worked for me. I can’t explain why.”

As he enters his junior year with all his impressive numbers, Riley begins to wonder if Shumate’s words will hold true. He thinks he has a shot at getting drafted after his junior season, but does not. Even after hitting better than .300 for the fourth straight year, no MLB team selects him after his senior season either.

Instead of getting his opportunity through the draft, he travels out to California for a month to perform in front of baseball scouts after graduating with a degree in sports science and fitness management. In January or 2013, he signs with independent baseball’s Kansas City T-Bones. But they release him two months later and two weeks into practice after telling him they no longer had room for him after signing players who recently were let go by Double-A minor league teams.

“It left a bad taste in my mouth,” Riley said. “But that’s how the business works. It pushed me to work a little harder. It was definitely a wake-up call.”

A few weeks after his release by the T-Bones, he receives a call from the Joliet Slammers, an independent team 30 miles outside of Chicago. He signs with the Slammers where he prospers. He earns a starting second baseman spot for the 2013 Frontier League All-Star team in his first season and finishes in the top 15 in hitting (.301) for the 14-team league. He also leads the Slammers in games played (87), at-bats (332), runs (53), hits (100), triples (3) and is second in RBI (50) and doubles (14).

Baseball America lists the left-handed batter as the No. 7 prospect in Independent Baseball. Baseball America also notes that Riley is one of the better defensive second baseman in the Frontier League.

In October, the Atlanta Braves purchased Riley’s contract from the Slammers, inviting him to their spring training facility in Orlando, Fla., this March. Only one year after being let go by the T-Bones, he is now getting his opportunity to play for a team he grew up watching because many of Braves’ games aired in North Carolina.

“Defensively he always made the plays at second base,” said current A&T head baseball coach Joel Sanchez. Sanchez starts coaching at A&T in 2012, Riley’s senior season. Sanchez is also a former minor league coach.

“He doesn’t have the strongest arm, but he always got rid of the ball at the right time, so defensively he is solid,” he continued. “He has always had that left-handed stick going for him. To make the team, he is obviously going to have to hit. He’s not the fastest guy out there, but he is a contact hitter, he is a line-drive hitter. He just needs to go out there and perform, really. Don’t try to do too much. Stay within yourself and make the routine plays.”

Riley said he loves the game so much; he plans to coach whenever his baseball playing days are over. Until then, he is another in a long line of Aggies pursuing the dream of playing major league baseball.

“No matter how it works out, it is an opportunity of a lifetime to get a chance to play second base for the Braves,” Riley said.