2015 Baseball (2026) - Hall of Fame - Columbia University Athletics

2015 Baseball

Induction:
2026

The 2015 Columbia baseball team raised the bar for the program. The Lions went 34-17, broke the school record for wins and put together a season that felt like it had something important on the line every weekend. Under head coach Brett Boretti, Columbia not only defended its place at the top of the Ivy League, but it also did it with a level of consistency that had not been seen before in the conference.

Columbia won its third straight Ivy League championship and earned its third consecutive NCAA tournament berth. The Lions were 16-4 in conference play and did not lose an Ivy League series all season.

The postseason path started at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium, where Columbia beat Penn, 4-2, in a one-game playoff to claim the Lou Gehrig Division title. From there, the Lions met Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship Series. After splitting the opening doubleheader, Columbia came out swinging in the winner-take-all finale. The Lions hit four home runs and won 10-7 to lock up the title. The championship made Columbia the first Ivy League program to win three straight conference titles since Harvard did it from 1997 to 1999.

Columbia did not stop there. In the NCAA Coral Gables Regional, the Lions earned a No. 3 seed and beat East Carolina in their opening-round game, 6-3. After a defeat to host Miami, the Lions staved off elimination with a 4-3 triumph over Florida International and set up a rematch with the Hurricanes.

In what was arguably the defining contest of the program’s then 127-year history, a trio of pitchers teamed up to blank the national No. 6 team in the country in a 3-0 victory for the Lions to send them to the Championship Round of the Regional.

Those three NCAA tournament wins set an Ivy League record. It was also the first time since 1974 that an Ivy League team won three games in a single NCAA appearance, and the first time an Ivy team did it under the current regional format that began in 1999.

The roster had talent across the diamond, but a few performances defined the year. Joey Falcone earned All-America honors on the strength of his .323 average, 11 homers and 54 RBI. Gus Craig was named Ivy League co-player of the year after a huge conference season, hitting .403 in Ivy games with 22 runs, four home runs and 18 RBI. Randell Kanemaru was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and gave Columbia an immediate impact bat, hitting .306 with a .411 on-base percentage. Columbia placed nine players on All-Ivy teams, the most in the league, and the pitching staff led the conference with three shutouts.

Boretti was named Ivy League coach of the year and ABCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year. Additionally, six key members of the squad (Craig, Falcone, Robb Paller, Will Savage, Jordan Serena, George Thanopoulous) all went on to play professionally.

More than a record-setting year, 2015 became a season people still talk about because it put Columbia on the national radar. The Lions proved they could win the Ivy League every spring, then go into an NCAA Regional and beat quality programs on their field. That team did not just rack up wins. It set a standard and gave future Lion squads a clear picture of what Columbia baseball looks like at its best.