Ben Wanger

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Ben Wanger
Pitcher
Born: (1997-04-07) April 7, 1997 (age 27)[1]
Newton, Massachusetts[2]
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Medals
Men's baseball
Representing  Israel
European Baseball Championship
Silver medal – second place 2021 Israel Team

Ben Wanger (

American-Israeli former professional baseball pitcher. He also plays for Team Israel. Playing for the Yale Bulldogs he led the Ivy League in RBIs in 2017 and was First-Team All-Ivy, and led the League in ERA in 2018 and was First-Team All-Ivy as a relief pitcher. He pitched and played first base for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics
in Tokyo in the summer of 2021.

Early life

Wanger was born in

Holocaust survivors.[3][6] He now lives in Coral Gables, Florida.[7]

High school

At

Boston Globe Prep All-Scholastic.[8] He also played football (as a defensive end) and basketball (as a forward) for the school.[8]

College

Wanger first attended

hamstring injury in the fourth game of his senior season in 2019, which caused him to have season-ending surgery and redshirt.[12][3]

In 2019-20 he attended the

Pac-12)/.500/.564, and was also the USC Trojans’ closer, and had three saves (2nd) and a 0.00 ERA in six appearances.[8] He was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-America second-team.[8][13]

Wanger then attended the

bone chips from his elbow, and he was back on the mound two months later.[16][17]

Professional career

In 2021, Wanger pitched for the

Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.[18] He made 15 appearances for the team, posting a 5.67 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 27.0 innings pitched.[19]
He became a free agent following the season.

On March 9, 2022, Wanger re-signed with the Barnstormers for the 2022 season.[20] Wanger appeared in only two relief appearances and pitched only 2.2 innings for the Barnstormers, with 2 strikeouts and giving up six hits and five runs.[19] With Lancaster, he won the Atlantic League championship.[21]

Post-playing career

On February 20, 2023, Wanger joined the Los Angeles 2028 Organizing Committee as part of its fellowship program for retired Olympians and Paralympians.[22]

Team Israel

In August 2019, he obtained

Israeli citizenship so that he could play for Team Israel in baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[23]

He pitched for Team Israel at the 2019 European Baseball Championship. He also pitched for the team at the Africa/Europe 2020 Olympic Qualification tournament in Italy in September 2019, which Israel won to qualify to play baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[24][25][26] He had three hits, scored four runs, and had three RBIs, while on the mound he pitched 4.1 scoreless innings, gave up one hit and one walk, and struck out five batters.[5]

He pitched for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, giving up a run in two innings over two relief appearances, and also played first base in one game.[27]

Wanger played first base, pitcher, and DH, and batted .273/.304/.409 for Team Israel in the 2023 European Baseball Championship in September 2023 in the Czech Republic.[28]

References

  1. ^ "Ben Wanger Player Card". The Baseball Cube.
  2. ^ a b "Miami Herald". miamiherald.com.
  3. ^ a b c "From Israel to Tokyo and Everywhere In-between: Ben Wanger". Untold Athletes.
  4. ^ ELLI WOHLGELERNTER. "On the cusp of greatness". The Jerusalem Post.
  5. ^ a b c "Ben Wanger - Baseball". USC Athletics.
  6. ^ "Barnstormers' Ben Wanger talks Olympic journey of Israel's baseball team | Sunday Sitdown". fox43.com. July 11, 2021.
  7. ^ Carmona, Sergio (July 16, 2021). "Team Israel Olympic baseball team includes South Florida players". Sun-sentinel.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Ben Wanger". University of Miami Athletics. August 18, 2020.
  9. ^ "Madison Wiltrout's national javelin record leads the American Family Insurance ALL-USA Performances of the Week". USA Today. May 8, 2015.
  10. ^ a b c "2017 Ivy League Batting Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com.
  11. ^ "Benny Wanger". pointstreak.com. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  12. ^ "USC baseball's Jason Gill: "Standards have been set here. It's our responsibility to bring them back."". NCAA.com.
  13. ^ "Cal Poly Hires Former USC, LMU Head Coach Jason Gill as Assistant Coach". Cal Poly.
  14. ^ Robert C. Jones Jr. "University employee heads to the Olympics". news.miami.edu.
  15. ^ John Reynolds (January 4, 2021). "Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Ranks Miami No.6, Names Three Hurricanes All-Americans". State of The U.
  16. ^ Christopher Stock. "RHP/DH Ben Wanger out with elbow injury". InsideTheU.
  17. ^ "Recap: Canes Lose Lopsided Series Opener To Georgia Tech, 14-3". Gables Insider. May 15, 2021.
  18. ^ "Ben Wanger". Lancaster Barnstormers. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  19. ^ a b "Ben Wanger College, Amateur & Independent Leagues Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com.
  20. ^ "Barnstormers Sign Former Cubs Player". Our Sports Central. March 9, 2022.
  21. ^ Jeremy Jenkins. "Lancaster Barnstormers win Atlantic League championship". wgal.com. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  22. ^ "Israeli baseball star aims to make "impactful change" as Los Angeles 2028 athlete fellow". insidethegames.biz. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  23. ^ Howard Blas. "Danny Valencia goes from the Sunshine State to the Jewish state," Israel HaYom.
  24. ^ "EUROPEAN Championship A-Pool - Israel". Baseballstats.eu. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  25. ^ Steven Klein (November 22, 2019). "U.S. Baseball pros arrive to claim Israeli citizenship, qualify for Olympics". Haaretz. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  26. ^ Susan Miller Degnan. "'Who the F is that guy?' From Yale to USC to Miami to Olympics, Ben Wanger makes impact". Miami Herald.
  27. ^ "Israel". World Baseball Softball Confederation.
  28. ^ "2023 European Baseball Championship". WBSC Europe.

External links

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