Columbia University
Yale
Columbia Set for ILCS Rematch at Yale This Weekend
4/12/2019 9:26:00 AM | Baseball
The Lions and Bulldogs return to the scene of last year's thrilling Ivy League Championship Series with both teams in the hunt for the postseason again.
LEADING OFF
COLUMBIA'S STATUS
The Lions remain tied in first place in the Ivy League standings at 6-3 after taking 2-of-3 at Princeton last weekend. On Wednesday, Columbia fell at Fordham, 3-2, in 11 innings.
YALE'S STATUS
The Bulldogs staved off a sweep at Harvard last weekend, winning the finale Sunda after dropping both ends of a doubleheader Saturday. Yale was clipped by Sacred Heart, 9-8, in its midweek contest.
As a team, the Bulldogs pace the Ivy League in fielding percentage (.982) and stolen bases (77).
Simon Whiteman leads the team with a .347 batting average, 11 doubles and 22 stolen bases. Griffin Dey is hitting .327 with seven homers and 31 RBI. Mason LaPlante has also been a pest on the base-paths with 22 steals.
INSIDE THE SERIES
Columbia is 72-103 all-time against Yale. Last year, the Lions and Bulldogs met five times, including the 2018 Ivy League Championship Series.
Columbia won the regular season series, 2-1, highlighted by a seven-run comeback in the ninth inning of the opener.
In the ILCS, the Lions swept the Bulldogs on the road, earning a 4-0 shutout in game one before clinching the series with a thrilling, 2-1, win in 15 innings.
NEWS/NOTES
CHANDLER BING
Senior Chandler Bengtson broke Columbia's all-time home run record with his 26th career dinger at Princeton on April 6. Bengtson has six homers in just 50 at-bats this season after missing eight games due to injury. He is two longballs away from being tied for 10th on the Ivy League career list. Bengtson was named a Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week and Ivy League Player of the Week after hitting four big flies in four games against Manhattan and Dartmouth. Four of Bengtson's career home runs have been of the grand slam variety, which is believed to be a program record. Bengtson belted an Ivy League-leading 10 taters in 2018 en route to first team All-Ivy League honors.
BORETTI REACHES 400 WINS
Columbia's 2-1 win at Princeton on April 7 gave Brett Boretti 400 for his career. Boretti spent four years at Franklin & Marshall before joining Columbia in 2006. His 288 wins with the Lions are third all-time and is nine away from moving into second place. Boretti's 161 Ivy League wins and .597 winning percentage in conference play are both program benchmarks.
NO JOSHIN'
Senior Josh Simpson is living up to his billing as Columbia's ace. He is among the top-five in the Ancient Eight in every major category and leads the conference in WHIP (0.99) and is tied for the most wins (four). The left-hander struck out a career-high eight batters at Cal Poly and on Mar. 15. against Cornell, he became the first Columbia pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout since 2014. Simpson missed all of 2018 while recovering from injury.
BUFFALO BEN
Junior Ben Wereski, a product of Orchard Park, New York, has given the Lions a solid option at the end of the weekend, posting back-to-back solid outings. In six innings against Dartmouth on March 31, the lefthander tossed six shutout frames with 10 strikeouts - the most for a Columbia pitcher since 2014. Wereski followed that up with 5.2 innings of one-run ball with seven K's in a 2-1 win at Princeton on April 7. Wereski paces the team with 40 strikeouts and is averaging 11.9 per nine innings - good for second in the Ivy League.
SAVVY SAAJ
After not traveling the first two weeks of the season, first-year Saajan May emerged from midweek starter to entering the weekend rotation. In his Ivy League debut, May did not surrender a hit and struck out six over five innings against Princeton on April 6. On the season, the righty is 1-0 and has allowed just one hit over 11.0 innings of work.
BIG BEN
Senior Ben Porter extended his hitting streak to 15 games after picking up a single in extra innings at Fordham. Over this stretch, the centerfielder is hitting .340 with five doubles and nine RBI.
