The Yeshiva University Maccabees had lost 99 games in a row. The Lehman College Lightning were winless in their last 42. Tuesday, these epic college baseball losing streaks collided in a doubleheader.
Both teams ended the day as winners.
Before the first pitch of the afternoon opener, Lehman coach Chris Delgado and Yeshiva coach Jeremy Renna met at home plate. The pair’s shared hardship made for “a certain harmony,” Renna said.
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“We often talk about not being able to understand what another person goes through in life without walking a mile in another man’s shoes, and he can understand where I am, and I can understand where he is,” Renna said.
Yeshiva, a Modern Orthodox Jewish school in Manhattan, entered Tuesday with 99 consecutive losses dating to Feb. 27, 2022. Lehman, a public university in the Bronx, had lost 42 straight games since May 9, 2023. Neither Delgado nor Renna had notched a win in their collegiate coaching careers.
In the first game, Yeshiva blew a two-run lead in the final inning, losing 7-6 and extending its skid to 100 games. It was the Lightning’s first win since Delgado was on the team as a pitcher, a victory shortstop Ryan Rosa called “something magical.”
“I’m happy that all this adversity and triumph is happening at this moment, when we’re so young that we can bring this out into our future selves and learn what it’s like to be down and out and digging ourselves out of our own hole,” Rosa said about the last two years. “Baseball’s just another form of life. You go through many adversities, and you just have to build yourself out of it.”
In the nightcap, Yeshiva again built another large lead before Lehman stormed back. But for the first time in more than three years, the Maccabees held on to win 9-5, much to the thrill of a rowdy Yeshiva fan base.
Yeshiva strands the runners and they head to the bottom of the 7th with a chance to walk it off and end the 99 game losing streak. Fans are going WILD pic.twitter.com/TYdiN8gDi3
— Michael Clair (@michaelsclair) April 8, 2025
Delgado and Renna said the hardships and near-misses of early-season disappointments set the stage for Tuesday’s triumphs. Renna repeatedly called it a quirk of math that made the games so monumental.
Had Yeshiva not blown back-to-back doubleheaders in extra innings against John Jay in early March (the second of which ended on a walk-off passed ball on a strike three), its streak would not have received national attention.
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“I could tell you it’s math, but as a believer in higher authority,” Renna said, “I believe the math led us here to do good things and show off our university and the things we like to do well.
“God works in funny ways.”
Lehman’s Game 1 starter, Justin Chamorro, tossed a complete game with a season-high 13 strikeouts for his first career win. And though a matchup between winless Division III teams might have seemed like a low-stakes outing, he knew the losing streaks piqued interest around the college baseball world.
“My goal always when I pitch is to finish a game, no matter what, to give my team an opportunity to win,” Chamorro said Wednesday. “That I did that yesterday, on a big stage with a lot on the line for both teams, I feel very happy. I feel very, very happy with how everything came to be. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It has to be a top two (moment) in my college career.”
In an email, Delgado said that although Tuesday’s win was nice, the Lightning program is going through a rebuild and its main goal is to lay the foundation for years to come.
The Maccabees, meanwhile, will get to enjoy their winning streak for more than two weeks, as the program is off until April 25 because of the Passover break.
“We have people pulling for each other not just as teammates but as brothers, and when you finally crest the mountain and finally get there, it’s a lot of love and hugs and thank-yous and I-love-yous,” Renna said.
“The mountaintop for some guys in sports is the championship,” he added. “For us, the mountain we’ve been climbing on is to win a baseball game, which is as elementary as it gets.”
(Photo courtesy of Lehman College)
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