California Native Chooses LB Baseball Over OSU

With the dark days of winter almost behind us, California native Jake Boyd and the rest of LBCC’s student body can look forward to spring.

Better weather isn’t the only thing on Boyd’s and LBCC’s horizon; spring weather brings spring ball. Baseball is back at LB, and rain or shine, Boyd is ready to take the mound.

Wearing his size 10 1/2 cleats and already 6-foot-1, Boyd stands tall on the pitcher's mound. A right-handed pitcher for the RoadRunners, he weighs in at 170 pounds; every ounce of which he puts behind his newly developed sidearm throwing motion. His father Bob Boyd encouraged him to experiment with the motion as a little leaguer when facing a batter that was down in the count two strikes.

A degree partnership student, Boyd developed his new motion practicing at Oregon State this past fall. Before developing his sidearm motion, Boyd modeled his game after another California native, Anaheim Angels ace Jered Weaver.  

Boyd came to Corvallis after OSU’s Head Baseball Coach Pat Casey offered him a premiere walk on spot at OSU. But, at 19 years old and a freshmen in college, Boyd did not make the highly competitive roster. He was however, offered an opportunity to redshirt. For Boyd that meant being put on a strict weight lifting regimen, not being able to practice with the team, and absolutely no playing time. Boyd declined Coach Casey’s offer.

“I wanted to play,” said Boyd.

This is precisely what corralled him into the RoadRunners bullpen.

“Here I actually get to pitch.”

Joining the RoadRunners on the baseball diamond this season, Boyd sacrificed a possible year of eligibility at OSU.

Almost 900 miles from home, Boyd is a transplant from the sunny southern California town of Ojai, and despite the differences in climate, he has survived his first rainy winter in the wet Willamette Valley.

“The weather people warned me about it, but you get use to it,” said Boyd.

Boyd misses friends and family back home, but is adjusting well to life in Corvallis. He is excited about getting to know and play ball with his new teammates. Although hundreds of miles apart, the two cities share similarities in Boyd’s eyes.

“Ojai is a lot like Corvallis, a small town,” said Boyd.

Ojai was the beginning of Boyd’s sports career and Corvallis is his future.

Boyd attended Nordhoff High School where he excelled as an athlete winning the Mike Mikos award for male athlete of the year. He is on the Nordhoff High Wall of Fame, and still holds school records for most three-pointers made in a basketball game with nine, and most varsity athletic letters in school history with 10. Earning a varsity letter all four years in both basketball and baseball, Boyd also lettered in football his junior and senior year.

Baseball may be Boyd’s chosen collegiate sport of play, but the gridiron is where his greatest sports moment, and most influential coaching mentor, hail from. Led by Boyd’s head coach and mentor Tony Henney, the Nordhoff Rangers arrived at Boyd’s greatest sports moment when they won back-to-back CIF-SS Football Championships.

“As a football player who was a deep threat, who could change a game with explosive plays, as a baseball player he is much more methodical in his abilities,” said Henney. “He is a competitor, wants to win, has fun doing it.”

Boyd holds his athletic future in the palm of his pitching hand, but he didn’t just move here for baseball. Getting an education and earning a degree is a top priority. Like many freshmen, Boyd’s major is undeclared but he has one advantage most freshman don’t: baseball, a tool that Boyd sees as the key to his academic success.

“The help you get as a student athlete helps me out a lot in school...My goals are to get bigger and better every day in baseball, and to go to class everyday.”

“Everything I do is for my family and friends back home. I miss them every day and push myself to make them proud. I would be nothing without the huge support group that I have back 
home.”

Jake Boyd an Ojai California transplant practices his pitching motion as he warms up for the RoadRunners upcoming baseball season.

At a Glance:

Who: California Native Jake Boyd.

What: Boyd chooses LBCC over OSU redshirt.

Where: Corvallis and Albany Oregon.

When: 2015 RoadRunners Baseball Season.