Junior Lee Bolyard has been playing baseball his whole life. Last year, his team just barely missed his goal of winning an NCAA championship. His contributions this year have shown he is ready to replicate last year's performance in search of another opportunity at an NCAA championship.
Bolyard has been playing baseball ever since he was a little kid. Growing up in the suburbs outside of D.C., Bolyard enjoyed the game since his early days of playing tee-ball. "I've always enjoyed the team atmosphere and hanging out with teammates," he said.
Bolyard chose Hopkins because he wanted to go to a school with a strong academic reputation and to have an appropriate fit athletically.
"I just wanted a balance between a high academic school and a good baseball team," he said. "I also really wanted the chance to win a national championship at the DIII level. These were all very important factors to me."
Off the field, Bolyard is majoring in economics. He hopes to find a job in finance after he graduates. He spends most of his time hanging out with teammates in social activities.
"Baseball takes up so much of my time, it's really hard to branch out and participate in other student groups. I enjoy spending time with my teammates and interacting outside of baseball," Bolyard said.
He is very close with a lot of the guys on the team, but most of the team looks up to one player in particular.
"We all really look up to Tim Rappazzo," Bolyard said. "He was diagnosed with leukemia in the winter and he was going to be a very big part of our team. We go out there every game and keep him in our minds."
The team has started out its season relatively well, beginning over spring break with a win in Arizona. The baseball team travels out to Arizona every year to play in the RussMatt Greater Phoenix Invitational. Although the team has won about as many games as they have lost, Bolyard believes it was a very positive experience.
"We've been going there all three years I have been here," he said. "It is kind of like an annual tradition for us. I think it's very positive for our team on the whole and will help contribute to success later in the season."
The team is currently 9-8 overall, with a Centennial Conference record of 2-1. Bolyard, the team's shortstop, has contributed greatly to the team's record with huge games on March 15 and 18, both Blue Jay wins.
On March 15, the Jays defeated Macalester in an 18-3 blowout. In the third inning, he blasted a three-run home run to increase the lead. His work was not done as an inning later, he hit a bases loaded triple.
Hopkins played a doubleheader on March 18 against Brockport and then Springfield. The Jays dominated both games with winning margins of 19 and 11. Bolyard was nearly perfect on the day, going seven for seven, with two doubles.
Bolyard is excited for the rest of the season and the chance at duplicating last year's performance. "After coming so close last year, we really want to rebound from that," he said.
"Sometimes it's really hard to stay positive, especially after such a slow start, but hopefully [we will] pick it up. We have high expectations from last year, even though we lost close to 15 seniors to graduation," Bolyard said.
Bolyard has very high goals for his team, even after such a slow start. He intends on winning the conference and the region and hopefully advancing to eight-team Division III World Series. His ultimate goal is for the team to get back to the championship game, but this time win it.
Come see Bolyard and the Jays next Friday against McDaniel at Homewood Field.
