Leesburg, Va. — Heritage High School senior Enrique Grijalva has committed to continue his baseball career at Roanoke College starting in the 2020-2021 school year.
“I’m very excited, but the whole process was fun,” Grijalva said. “I got to go visit very nice universities, meet new kids from all sorts of places, and learn different coaching strategies from all of the camps that I attended.”
Grijalva said he discovered Roanoke while his older brother, Diego, was looking at potential colleges to attend and continue his own baseball career. Diego – who graduated from Heritage in 2017 and was named first team All-Conference 21B as a third baseman his senior year – is currently a junior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and is a member of the Seahawks’ baseball program.
“When Diego was going through his recruiting process he went to Roanoke for a camp and campus tour and I tagged along,” Grijalva said. “Roanoke stuck with me when the camp and the tour was over. I loved the field, the campus, the area, and the atmosphere. When it came my time to attend camps, Roanoke was a no-brainer, and I was ecstatic when they told me they would like me to come and play baseball for them.”
Roanoke is coming off of a 21-16 season in which they finished second in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference with a 16-6 record in conference games. The Division III Maroons finished 31-11 in 2018, and went 35-19 in 2017. During that 2017 campaign, Roanoke was the bottom seed in the six-team ODAC Tournament, but they ended up winning both the ODAC and NCAA South Regional Tournaments on their way to the semifinals of the DIII World Series.
However, before he heads to Roanoke, Grijalva has one final season with the Pride.
Grijalva has proven to be a key piece of the Heritage pitching staff the last two seasons. As a sophomore in 2018, he appeared in 10 games and accumulated 25 innings with a 3-2 record and a 3.92 ERA. As a junior, Grijalva improved his numbers across the board. The right-hander racked up 29.2 innings pitched in 12 appearances on the mound to go along with a 2-2 record and a 3.10 ERA.
Along with the success he has had on the field during his high school career, his work ethic and positive attitude are two aspects that have not gone unnoticed by his teammates.
“I’ve known Enrique ever since we both played at Central Loudoun Little League,” said Heritage senior Dylan Saale, who recently committed to play baseball at Longwood University. “He works very hard daily in everything he does. I work out with him 5-6 times per week at R&D Baseball Academy, and he motivates me because I always see him working so hard. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had because no matter the situation he always finds positives in it.”
In the 22 pitching appearances he’s made in his career the last two seasons, Grijalva has only started 7 of those games as he has been used as the main reliever out of the bullpen for the Pride behind their two main starting pitchers: Saale and junior Grant Barberich.
“I love the role of reliever. I thrive under pressure and always seem to get out of bad situations for my team,” Grijalva said. “With a pitching staff as good as ours, I have no problem coming in relief for Dylan and Grant. Even though I was primarily a reliever I still got a bunch of starts, all of which were fairly good, and I’m sure I will get even more this coming season.”
Grijalva figures to play a major role once again in the spring for the Pride, who bring back the majority of a team that went 10-10 a season ago and only lost two full-time starters to graduation.
“I think the sky is the limit for us this year. I feel we have studs at all nine positions with a bunch of other studs waiting for their turn to make an impact,” Grijalva said. “We are a team of best friends, and I feel there isn’t a team in our conference that can compare.”