Willie Rios experienced a harsh dose of reality when the left-handed pitcher made his minor league debut late last month.

"Nerve-racking is the only way I can really put it," Rios said. "The biggest thing was just knowing it wasn't an amateur game anymore. It hit me a lot harder than I expected."

Rios was roughed up but survived the jarring impact. He gradually settled into his new life as a rookie professional baseball player.

It's an entirely new world for the St. Bernard School graduate and 16th round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles. He's playing for the organization's rookie league team in Sarasota, Fla.

It's nothing but baseball, baseball, baseball all day and every day.

"It was definitely different, a lot different," Rios said. "The whole lifestyle is different. It's not something that you can really prepare for. It's different than being in school. Every day life just revolves around baseball now.

"But I love it. It's great."

After being drafted in June, Rios took some time to make a decision about whether to sign a professional contract or return to college. He was planning on attending the University of Miami after spending last year at Florida Southwestern, a junior college.

Once he opted to go pro, Waterford's Rios headed to the Orioles spring training complex in Sarasota. He took his physical and pitched on the side before being activated for the Gulf Coast League team.

Rios is experiencing the typical rookie growing pains.

His appearances are limited to about three innings per start. A lingering groin injury from his college season has hampered him a bit.

"I trust what they have me doing," Rios said. "This is what they do every day."

Rios quickly found out that pitchers pay dearly for their mistakes. In six starts, he's 0-4 with an 11.25 earned run average, allowing 15 earned runs in 12 innings while walking 11 and striking out 10.

Despite his struggles, Rios has remained upbeat and confident thanks to his pitching coach, Wilson Alvarez, the former major league pitcher who once tossed a no-hitter while with the Chicago White Sox.

Rios was realistic, not expecting to come in and throw seven shutout innings right away.

"Thank God the pitching coach that I have down here is great with that stuff," Rios said. "He's a really easy guy to relate to. When stuff started spiraling downward, he took me aside and talked to me and said it happens to everyone. He told me not to lose faith in my stuff.

"He just keep reiterating the fact that I'm here so I'm clearly good enough to be playing this game still so to just trust that and believe in myself. ... He tells me all the time that he believes in me and sees the talent that I have. He says that he knows that I can get hitters out on the next level. Coming from a guy like that that had such a successful career in professional baseball, it helps my confidence."

It also helps that Alvarez is a lefthander like Rios. They spend time talking during bullpen sessions.

Alvarez stresses to Rios to keep the ball down in the zone, preferably at the knees and on the corners. It takes more than a blazing fastball to be effective.

"I've realized from my experience watching other guys down here that fastballs up get hit very hard," Rios said. "In our bullpens, we have a string that runs across the strike zone that shows where the knees of the hitter would be. The whole goal is to try to hit the string with the fastball consistently on both sides of the plate. It's something that we work on constantly.

"Definitely, I see improvements. My fastball consistency is getting a lot better. My past couple of starts just seeing the numbers and the strike percentages and locations, it makes me feel good that hard work is paying off."

Rios had his best start of his young career on Thursday, allowing just one run and two hits in three innings against the Twins. He walked three and struck out three.

He'll make one more start next week before the Gulf Coast League ends on Sept. 1. He will fly home on Sept. 2 and return to Florida on Sept. 14 for the instructional league, which lasts about a month. Over the offseason, he'll follow a workout plan.

"Everything is mapped out," Rios said. "You know exactly what you're doing every day. This is what I wanted to do my whole life. I'm living out a dream I've always had, so I'm loving every minute of it."

Rios is one of two former Eastern Connecticut Conference standouts in the rookie ranks. East Lyme's Chase Livingston, a 39th round draft pick of the Royals, is a catcher in the Kansas City system. After starting out in the Arizona League, he's now with the Burlington (N.C.) Royals. Through nine games in the Appalachian League, he's batting .308 with four RBI.

They are former summer baseball teammates, playing for the Mystic Schooners of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. The Schooners won their first title earlier this month.

"I was super excited," Rios said. "I felt like I won it with them. I love all those guys and love coach Dennis (Long) and coach (Phil) Orbe. They helped out a lot. ... I'm glad that they were able to take home the championship."

g.keefe@theday.com