NEW YORK – Columbia's senior-led pitching staff has seen its fair share of adversity.
 
From COVID canceling two Ivy League seasons, to personal triumphs, Saajan May, Sean Higgins and Billy Black have persevered to help balance out the hard-hitting Lions.
 
While the offense has been a slugfest recording 374 runs, including 60 home runs, the pitching staff's perseverance and flexibility has served as the team's steady hand.
 
"Anytime, you know you got three seniors that are able to do that and three seniors that are selfless, that's the big thing," Brett Boretti, fresh off his third Ivy League Coach of the Year honor and sixth Ivy League Championship as Columbia's coach, said. "They're willing to fill any role that they're asked to fill."
 
May has been a steady hand for the team all season, going a perfect 5-0 and notching a save. The great senior season comes after showing promise as a first-year before seeing two Ivy League seasons wiped out in the middle of his career due to the COVID pandemic.
 
"It's been a good journey, for sure. Obviously it's been a wild ride – unorthodox," May said. "Coming back after two years of being off – we obviously felt a little bit cheated by the fact that all Division I was able to play last year and we weren't so we really wanted to make this last season mean something coming back, all the seniors especially."
 
Fellow senior Sean Higgins experiences his fair share of adversity in Columbia's Ivy League Championship season after finally getting to play ball after the two-year pandemic pause. His 2020 season had come to an end right before the 2020 pandemic shut down when he got Tommy John surgery.
 
Battling through injuries early in the season, Higgins won a couple of big ball games over the final two weekends to secure both an Ivy League Regular Season Title, and win the Ivy League Championship Playoff Series, keeping the season going by securing a spot in Regionals.
 
After starting and winning a game for Columbia on a five-inning outing at Dartmouth to win a share of the Ivy League Regular Season Title, he started in game two of the Ivy League Playoff Series, an elimination game for the Lions trailing Penn 0-1.
 
"Obviously it wasn't ideal, going through some injuries and not performing to the best of my ability," Higgins said of the start of his season. "But given that opportunity, I kind of realized that this could have been my last game ever, and I just kind of wanted to leave everything on the field. Do whatever I can to give us a chance to win the championship the next game."
 
Once again going five innings and securing the win, Higgins would watch his fellow upperclassmen Billy Black close out the Ivy League Championship in the following game.
 
It was a special moment for Black, the lone graduate student in Columbia baseball's illustrious history that dates back to 1868. Due to the pandemic, the Ivy League amended one of its rules and allowed a one-time exemption for the senior class of 2021, after the Ancient Eight canceled all sports for the 2020-21 academic year due to COVID concerns.
 
After celebrating from the bench as an injured player as a first-year for Columbia's last Ivy League Title in 2018, Black wanted to come back and do it again. But this time with more involvement. As a starter in the rotation.

However, things didn't exactly work that way. While he started the season in the rotation, he eventually would begin working out of the bullpen. And his hand gripping the baseball to close out the Ivy League Playoff Series comeback and win the Ivy League's spot in the NCAA tournament for the sixth time in Columbia's history, ended up at the bottom of the pile during the Lions celebration.
 
"This year specifically has just been a microcosm of how my career at Columbia has been. There have been some ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," Black said. "I came in as a freshman, I was closing games, and then I hurt my elbow. Coming back sophomore year in the rotation and then I got bumped to the bullpen, then COVID happened.
 
"So for me, it's just been taking everything in stride. I love this team, the coaching staff, and all of my teammates."
 
Regaining the championship winning experience, and this time on the mound, Black is closing out his Columbia career with one of his most cherished baseball memories.
 
"I was hurt at the time [in 2018], so the dogpile was fun, but I'd say that this one was a little bit sweeter, knowing that I contributed to it," Black said. "Even though being at the bottom of the dog pile kind of stinks, it was one of the best baseball experiences I've ever had in my life, so I wouldn't trade it for anything."
 
Now, Columbia will head to Blacksburg, Va. where they will open with Gonzaga on Friday, June 3 in the NCAA Regionals looking to advance for the first time in program history. The team will go there loose, ready to have fun and play baseball, with nothing to lose. After two years were wiped out, the Lions made the most of it with a 2022 season for the record books.
 
With the spring semester complete, they get a couple weeks of more baseball together, enjoying the moment and the comradery without the stresses of rigorous Columbia classes, gladly delaying summer plans, and hopefully even longer.
 
While no Ivy League team has ever advanced from Regionals to Super Regionals, Columbia has a senior pitch staff to go along with a hard-hitting lineup that has a chance to keep making history.
 
Matt Sugam '23 SPS  has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam or visit his website at www.mattsugam.com