Years of baseball hardship will end Tuesday afternoon for either the Yeshiva University Maccabees or the Lehman College Lightning.
Yeshiva, a Modern Orthodox Jewish school, has dropped 99 consecutive contests, while its New York City neighbor carries a 42-game losing skid into Tuesday’s nonconference doubleheader in Teaneck, New Jersey.
The Maccabees, 0-18 this season, last won a game on Feb. 27, 2022, in a doubleheader sweep of the John Jay Bloodhounds. The 0-13 Lightning last checked in to the win column on May 9, 2023, with a 7-4 victory over the Baruch College Bearcats.
Yeshiva alumnus and comic Eitan Levine called the matchup “statistically, the worst baseball game of all time.”
Yeshiva, however, still has years to go before it comes close to the 228 consecutive games the Caltech Beavers lost from 2003 to 2013.
The NCAA does not have any record of most combined losses by two teams meeting in any one contest. An NCAA spokesperson, told of the upcoming Yeshiva-Lehman contest, said Monday, “Wow, those are big numbers.”
Yeshiva coach Jeremy Renna, athletic director Greg Fox and all the players refused comment on the losing streak, according to a university spokesperson. No Yeshiva representative is expected to be made available for comment after Tuesday’s game, which will be played at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
“The university has made the call from above myself, and above the AD, that we’re not going to comment on” the streak, athletic department spokesperson Zeke Warren-Weigmann told NBC News on Monday.
Lehman athletic director Ryan McCarthy said he’s still confident in Lightning coach Chris Delgado, even as the losses pile up.
“We are certain he can turn our program around,” McCarthy said in a statement. “He has been hard at work in identifying and obtaining commitments from prospective student-athletes, laying the groundwork for future success while setting a culture on our current roster.”
Delgado, 26, acknowledged all of the losing has been tough to endure but insists the team is making progress.
“Being on a losing streak is tough, especially a lengthy one, as many people will measure success by the number of tallies in the win column,” said Delgado, a pitcher on the last Lehman team to win a ballgame in 2023. “However, results don’t determine the type of program that we have. With the new coaching turnover, we’re rebuilding [a] program that’s establishing a strong foundation of excellence and integrity.”
The Naimoli Family Baseball Complex, Tuesday’s venue, is among several facilities that Yeshiva regularly rents as its home diamond. It has no lights. So in theory, a monster extra-inning affair in Game 1 could end in a tie.
First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, with sunset at 7:28 p.m.
The Division III schools last met on the baseball diamond on May 13, 2022, when Lehman won 12-11.
The post These college baseball teams have lost a combined 141 straight games. That changes today appeared first on NBC News.
