Ryan Boyer wasn’t the difference-maker in Jamestown that night.
In fact, on the picture-perfect night the Olean Oilers played Boyer’s Jamestown Jammers in a cross-league exhibition at Diethrick Park in early July, the Bradford native didn’t pitch at all.
His absence, however, was nowhere near indicative of his place with the Jammers or the kind of season he was having. Quite the opposite; with both firmly entrenched in playoff races, neither team threw any of their top pitchers.
That sentiment was amplified 10 days ago, just weeks after he helped Jamestown, now a collegiate summer outfit, to its first Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) championship.
Boyer earned a national nod for his campaign, garnering Perfect Game/Rawlings Summer Collegiate Second Team All-America honors. It was the latest in a string of notable accomplishments for the 2015 Bradford graduate, a Big 30 all-star in basketball, a District 9 all-star in baseball and a second team league all-star with Pitt-Bradford this spring.
“It’s another fantastic accomplishment for Ryan,” UPB coach Zach Foster said. “He is finally getting the recognition we always knew had the ability to get. He has all the tools to pitch at the next level. Congrats on another well-deserved award.
“Ryan has not only represented himself and his family, but also Pitt-Bradford baseball and Pitt-Bradford athletics in such a humble and professional manner.”
On a staff filled with hard, overpowering throwers, which was evident in that exhibition game, won by the Jammers, 7-4, Boyer was among the hardest throwing, leading to his becoming the de facto closer.
And his numbers out of the bulpen were stellar.
The rising Pitt-Bradford senior totaled seven saves, tied for second-most in the PGCBL, while striking out 37 batters in 25 innings pitched and going 4-0 with an exceptional 1.44 ERA. An essential piece of the Jammers’ championship team from the start, he was named to the PGCBL All-Star Game and the all-league First Team at season’s end.
In a standout summer, however, he saved his best work for last.
Boyer tossed 3 ⅔ innings of relief, collecting both of the Jammers’ victories, in earning Most Outstanding Player honors for the three-game championship series. He struck out nine of the 15 batters he faced. He was especially sharp in the closing innings of the deciding game, throwing 2 ⅓ scoreless frames with five of the seven outs he recorded coming by strikeout, including the final out to clinch the title.
Clearly, he has a knack for performing well on the biggest stages. In May, he picked up a complete-game victory in leading Pitt-Bradford past Penn State-Altoona, 9-3, in Game 1 of a three-game Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference first round playoff series. Four years earlier, at 16, he fired a no-hitter to key Bradford in a legion playoff game against Smethport.
“Ryan had an unbelievable summer for himself,” Foster said of Boyer, who for the Panthers is the ace starter as opposed to closer. “It was fun to watch him and keep up with. He has made his community and team very proud.”
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Boyer’s national award is its exclusivity.
Only 51 players are selected from the around the country by Perfect Game for its All-America teams, made up of three 17-players squads. Boyer was one of only six players chosen from the Perfect Game league (the highly regarded Cape Cod League had the most selections with 11).
Additionally, these groups are generally populated by Division I talent, many of whom are destined for professional success. Boyer was one of just two Division III players tabbed to either of the first two All-America teams.
As a junior at Pitt-Bradford, Boyer threw a team-best 58 ⅔ innings and finished third in the AMCC with 66 strikeouts while posting a 4.45 ERA in earning Second Team all-conference honors. He was twice named the league’s Pitcher of the Week.
The Jammers’ first championship didn’t come without adversity. Due to a scheduling conflict at Diethrick Park — the Babe Ruth 16-18 World Series was set for that same week — Jamestown was forced to play two of three playoff semifinal games on the road and all three championship series games in Amsterdam.
To Boyer, though, that turned out to be a positive.
“I honestly think it brought us closer having to play all three here,” he said just minutes after the Jammers clinched the title. “That’s why we came out with it.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherad.com)
