PUEBLO, Colo. – In baseball, middle infielders need agility, speed and arm strength, skills that are equally as key in bull riding.

Edgar Durazo has all three in spades.

The bull rider-cum-baseball player honed his skills on the ballfields in his hometown of Moctezuma, Mexico, playing second base and shortstop before turning his primary focus to bull riding.

“I’ve been playing since I was a little kid,” Durazo said. “I was playing with teams back then, but now, when I started riding bulls I just stopped playing. It’s just for fun now.”

Baseball is in Durazo’s blood – his second cousin, Erubiel Durazo, played first base for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland Athletics from 1999-2005 – and is immensely popular in his home state of Sonora. Moctezuma is close to the Arizona border, and Durazo still claims the Diamondbacks as his favorite team.

“Baseball is big down there. In Sonora, it’s big,” he said. “You’ve got a baseball team everywhere, and (rodeos) and bull riding and saddle broncs and stuff around. It’s pretty cool.”

However, raised on a ranch, Durazo always knew he’d pick bull riding over baseball when push came to shove.

“We all liked baseball, but bull riding is something that I really looked for and wanted to do,” he said. “I knew since I was a little kid. I knew it since I got on my first sheep.”

But the one thing that baseball had that bull riding didn’t?

Teams.

In baseball, there’s no winning without the support and contributions of at least eight other people on the field with you. In bull riding, it’s just you and the bull.

However, the PBR Global Cup has given Durazo the chance to slip on a jersey and compete for a team again, an opportunity he relishes.

“Playing baseball, it’s really good, you really have fun with it,” he said. “But (bull riding) is something different. It’s really in my heart. It’s a different sport as a team versus a single event. And Global Cup is a team as well, so it comes together, like the baseball one. So that makes it real special.”

Durazo has competed at all three editions of the Global Cup for Team Mexico and hopes to make his fourth roster for the 2020 WinStar World Casino & Resort Global Cup USA, presented by Monster Energy, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in February.

Last week, it was announced that head coach Gerardo Venegas and assistant coach Jerome Davis will lead Team Mexico in 2020.

Luck wasn’t on his side in Arlington the first time around, as he suffered a pelvic contusion when he was stepped on by Pennywise after a 7.58-second buckoff in Round 1. He was sidelined for two months but returned in time to be the Hispanic invite for the Ty Murray Invitational, presented by Isleta Resort & Casino, going 0-for-4.

Even without Durazo’s presence, Team Mexico went on to its best Global Cup finish, placing fifth and going 4-for-18.

RELATED: Torres and Contreras lead Mexico to Global Cup best fifth-place showing

Durazo was bucked off in his one out in Sydney in 2018, but fared far better in Edmonton in 2017. He went 2-for-4 at the inaugural Global Cup, riding South Texas Gangster for 86.75 points and Smiling Bob for 85.25 points, and nearly riding VJV Whiskey Hand (7.96 seconds) as well.

He accounted for two of Mexico’s three rides.

“I was in Edmonton and that was a really good experience for me,” Durazo said. “That was the first Global Cup, and it went really well. I rode two of my four bulls, but it was an incredible experience there.”

It was his first time riding for a team – and for his country – and found himself re-energized by the atmosphere and the chance to represent Mexico.

“It’s something incredible. It’s amazing,” he said. “Your whole nation is backing you up and you’ve got your flag on your back, and it’s something that’s just different than everything else. It’s just a different event. Something amazing.

“You want the whole team to ride all their bulls, and just cheering for them, and screaming, it just pumps you up.”

While Mexico is yet to host the Global Cup, Texas provides something of a home field advantage for Team Mexico. All that’s left to do is take advantage of it.

“It was really good,” Durazo said of the 2019 edition of the event, also held in Arlington. “Definitely. I really liked that one because it was something different. It’s a big stage, and there’s a lot of Mexican people there. A lot of Brazilians, Americans… you’ve got a little bit of everything. I think it’s been the best place and I look forward to being there next year.

“Definitely,” he added with a grin.