Riojas overcomes injury to sign with UTSA

This is the second of a three part series highlighting the three Wimberley athletes who signed to play with a college on national signing day.

It’s been a long journey for Wimberley starting pitcher Ruger Riojas as he signed his letter of intent with the UTSA baseball program.

In fact when it came time for Riojas to sign, he could barely remember it.

“Honestly I don’t really feel anything,” Riojas said. “I pretty much blacked out during the entire speech because of the adrenaline. Everything is going by so fast that I’m speechless. Just thankful that UTSA has given me this opportunity. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

After a successful 2020 fall season with the Test Baseball developmental program, Riojas caught the attention of a couple collegiate programs including UTSA.

“I had a really good fall season,” Riojas said. “Got some looks from other schools around the area. UTSA was the first to call, and it went on from there.”

Riojas then announced his decision to sign with the Roadrunners back in January.

“After a lot of prayer, thought, and consideration,” Riojas said in a statement. “I am excited to announce that I will continue my academic and baseball career at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I thank God for the countless blessings and for constantly working in my life to make me a better person and ball player.”

However, Riojas’ road to signing his letter of intent was not without its pitfalls as he came to learn early in the Wimberley Texans baseball season in 2021.

During a baseball scrimmage with the Texans, Riojas suffered a stress reaction to his ulna which caused him to miss his junior season with the Wimberley baseball team.

“I’ve been coming out for a couple of months,” Riojas said. “I just kept at it, kept getting stronger, and focused on getting back. Glad it happened, because I had really good numbers when I came back.”

Because Riojas’ time with Test Baseball and Texas Twelve during the fall, competing with some of the highly recruited baseball players in the nation has made him a better player.

“The competition is so much better,” Riojas said. “Playing the top guys in the nation, traveling all over the country, facing guys that you will face in college, and the competition is unbelievable. Guys are throwing 100 mph, if you miss a pitch they will take you deep, and it’s keeping you on top of your game and you will improve almost every day.”

Now with signing day over and the fall season coming under wraps, Riojas’ focus is now getting back with the Texans for his senior season as Wimberley looks to capture the district championship.

“I think we are going to have a pretty good team.” Riojas said. “We are going to be stacked when it comes to pitching. Fielding and hitting, we’ve got the keys there. Last year was senior led, but we got a pretty good team with these juniors and sophomores. I can’t wait to see where we go from there.”