Columbia baseball has named four captains for the upcoming 2017 season. Seniors Kyle Bartelman and Ryan Marks along with juniors Randell Kanemaru and Ty Wiest were selected to leadership positions after team votes.
Bartelman entered the starting lineup last season and provided the Lions’ offense with 13 extra base hits and 19 RBI.
Marks has made 34 career appearances out of the bullpen, striking out 52 batters in 51.1 innings of work. The left-hander pitched in a number of big games during the Lions’ 2015 Ivy League Championship season, earning a 10-out save at Houston early in the season and seeing action in the deciding game of the ILCS as well as working two games in the NCAA Coral Gables Regional.
Kanemaru posted a .340 batting average to go with five dingers and 27 RBI in just 28 games last season. He was named Ivy League Player of the Week after going 6-for-15 with two home runs and seven RBI against Yale and Brown. Kanemaru has earned All-Ivy League honors in each of his first two seasons with the Lions and was the 2015 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
Wiest, who missed all of last season due to injury, was a key member of the Lions bullpen in 2015. That season, he posted a 3-1 record with a 2.25 ERA and was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Week at the end of the regular season after earning a save and win against Penn to force a one-game playoff for the Lou Gehrig Division crown. Wiest also started the ILCS clinching game against Dartmouth and an elimination game against FIU at NCAA Regionals, allowing just one run on three hits in 4.2 innings.