Jake was involved in baseball, football and track during his time at Dowling Catholic. He was a three-year starter in baseball, earned all-conference honors three times, was a first team all-state infielder his junior and senior year, and was a member of three state tournament teams, including the championship team in 2011. He also earned all-conference honors in football and helped his team earn the state championship title in 2010. He was also a state qualifier in track.

He went on to play collegiate baseball for three seasons at the University of Iowa where he started at shortstop and was team captain. He was a member of the 2014 All-Big Ten first team, ABCA first team all-region, and led the Hawkeyes in batting average, runs scored and RBIs in 2014. As a junior, he was ranked second in the Big Ten in batting average and steals, ranking in the top seven in the league in seven categories before being selected in the 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft following his junior season. He was an eighth round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels and spent five seasons playing professionally for the Angels organization, reaching the AAA level of MiLB in 2017 before retiring to focus on coaching.

Jake earned a B.S. in health and human physiology from the University of Iowa in 2018 and currently serves as the assistant baseball coach for the Xavier Musketeers.