Boyer Comes Back Jawing After Taking One on Chin

Shortstop Brad Boyer of Camarillo High is volunteering to take the first punch if his team gets into a bench-clearing brawl.

“Throw me out there,” he said. “I’ll take the biggest guy on. Give it your best shot and see how your hand feels.”

Not even George Foreman could survive a punch to Boyer’s jaw.

“You’re going to be hitting some titanium,” Boyer warned.

Boyer isn’t exactly an expert on punches.

“I’m the lover, not the fighter,” he said.

But he had two titanium plates surgically implanted after breaking his jaw March 1 in a freak accident at a batting cage, forcing him to miss Camarillo’s first five games.

Since he returned two weeks ago, Boyer has been on a tear, going 11 for 18 while reinforcing the idea that he’s one of the best juniors in the region.

“Brad Boyer is a throwback player from the ‘50s and ‘60s,” Coach Scott Cline said. “He flat out plays the game hard from the time he steps onto the field to the moment he steps off.”

Boyer is Camarillo’s smaller version of Joe Borchard, a former three-sport standout who is in the Chicago White Sox organization.

Boyer, 5 feet 11, 160 pounds, started at wide receiver for the football team, started at point guard for the basketball team and is a critical hitter and fielder for the baseball team.

If you want to see his athleticism off the field, take him to the beach and watch the acrobatic moves he makes with a boogie board. Or invite him to the mountains and get out of the way while he goes snowboarding.

Baseball is what he lives for. If he’s not practicing with the team, he’s usually working out at a neighborhood gym or spending hours at the batting cage of Mike Scyphers, former Simi Valley coach.

“I love baseball,” he said. “When you connect with a baseball, there’s no better feeling. It’s like paradise. I love diving head first into home plate. When I’m out there, it’s a dream come true.”

Boyer was hit hard during football season, roughed up in basketball and picked up his share of bruises playing baseball, but he never imagined his most serious injury would come at a batting cage. He ducked behind a protective screen when a ball was hit, but the screen had a hole in it. The ball struck him near the temple.

“It was like a cannon hitting me, like something exploding at me,” he said. “I thought I lost all my bottom teeth.”

The injury happened on his first day of practice.

“I went to the doctor the next morning, ‘You’re going to have surgery today and we don’t think you’re going to be playing until May,’ ” Boyer said. “I was freaking out.”

Then came days of ingesting nothing but soup, oatmeal, malts and protein shakes.

“I had a chocolate malt every time I went to bed,” he said. “Now I’m burnt out.”

The surgery went so well that Boyer needed only a couple weeks of recuperation. Cline has put him in left field until he receives doctor clearance next week to play shortstop.

The titanium plates don’t seem to be bothering Boyer, although he said, “I’ll bet you can hold a magnet up to my face and you’d be worried.”

Cline thinks the injury might have been a blessing. Boyer had not taken any break from sports in months.

“I wish he wouldn’t have gotten hurt, but I’m glad he got to take a couple weeks off,” Cline said. “I think it’s going to jump start his year. Believe me, I wanted to kind of sit him down after basketball season.”

Boyer was driving everyone a little crazy while waiting to return. He started offering hitting advice for slumping teammates.

“They were calling him ‘Coach Boyer’ in the dugout,” Cline said. “I was about sick of him. I had to get him out of the dugout. I thought he was going to charge $40 to $50 an hour with what he was saying.”

Few players have as much fun or play with more passion than Boyer. If he didn’t end each game with his uniform full of mud, dirt and dust, teammates would probably dump dirt on his head to make him feel comfortable.

“I just love going out there every day,” he said. “We don’t play a lot of games, so what the heck--show what you can do. I’m not a 6-4 shortstop who drops bombs. I’m a guy who scraps out there and gives the other team a hassle.”

Now, if only he can take care of his jaw. When Boyer was 4, he broke his jaw running into a picnic table.

“This one hurt a lot more,” he said.

As long as he’s not setting off any metal detectors, Boyer should be fine.

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Eric Sondheimer’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.