HOUSTON -- Imagine trying to balance a schedule of playing Division I college football and baseball at the same time while also trying to complete your bachelor’s degree. For Bryce Boettcher, who was taken in the 13th round of the MLB Draft by the Astros on Tuesday out of the University of Oregon, he’s had harder challenges.

"I was a landscaper over quarantine during COVID, and if you’re out digging ditches and raking leaves in 95-degree weather, getting your bills paid for and playing two sports is a luxury,” he said.

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Boettcher, a 6-foot-2 center fielder, has spent the previous two years playing football and baseball for the Ducks. His baseball eligibility is done, but he has one year of football eligibility remaining and will play football this fall for Oregon in a unique arrangement with the Astros.

"We felt comfortable allowing Bryce the opportunity to do that,” Astros scouting director Cam Pendino said. “What we see is a really, really premium athlete who’s going to play a really good center field. He has an innate feel to make a lot of contact and he’s got bat speed, and we think we can take those traits and we can help polish him up and develop him. Once he commits full time to baseball, we think the talent is much greater than the 13th round, so we’re pretty excited to get him."

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Boettcher played 56 games in center field for Oregon this year, slashing .276/.372/.500 with 12 homers, 15 stolen bases and 35 RBIs. He had six outfield assists and didn’t make an error, becoming one of three outfielders nationally to earn a Rawlings Gold Glove Award.

"Absolute fierce competitor,” Oregon baseball coach Mark Wasikowski said. "This is a well-rounded young guy that’s a super athletic kid who worked his way onto the football team at the University of Oregon, which I don’t know who the heck does that. Not at this place. He was able to become a starter for that team that won a bowl game, and he was our center fielder and he won a Gold Glove. Pretty well-rounded to me."

Boettcher grew up in South Eugene, Ore., and always wanted to wear the green and gold of the Ducks. He was a standout baseball player and a three-star high school football quarterback, but because he wasn’t recruited by Oregon, he chose to accept a scholarship to play baseball. Still, he never gave up the dream of playing football for the Ducks.

When Dan Lanning took over as Oregon head football coach prior to the ’22 season, Boettcher decided to walk on.

"They had walk-on tryouts, and I said, ‘You know what, I’d be kicking myself down the road if I didn’t give it a shot,’” he said. "I went out and the coaching staff like me and I started out as a safety for my first year."

Boettcher appeared in 12 of 13 games on special teams in 2022. Last season, he transitioned from defensive back to inside linebacker and finished fifth on the team with 37 tackles, plus he had a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. But when he ran down the field for the opening kick for Oregon in the season opener against Georgia in Atlanta in 2022, Boettcher had to forego his baseball scholarship.

"You have to be a football scholarship player to be able to play on the baseball team,” Wasikowski said. “That’s how the rules are written. Coach Lanning put him on scholarship because he saw the value in Bryce and he knew he was going to value his program, and he knew he wasn’t going to steal our center fielder away from me. Coach Lanning was a huge part of his development, because without coach Lanning understanding what the rules meant and sticking with the rules and doing whatever he could do, Bryce wouldn’t have this opportunity.”

Putting on the Oregon football uniform for the first time was surreal, Boettcher said. It came before a sellout crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta -- a game Oregon lost, 49-3, to the eventual national champions.

"I had never played in an environment like that, and to start against those guys in my first college game was pretty nuts,” he said. “After high school, I didn’t think I’d ever put the helmet and shoulder pads on, and I was super excited."

Once he turns his attention to baseball next spring, Boettcher said the Astros are getting a hard-nosed, old-school player.

"I play the game really hard,” he said. “They’re getting a great teammate who cares about the organization, cares about his teammates and who’s going to lay everything on the field to win regardless of what it looks like."