Ben Wanger
Ben Wanger (born April 7, 1997) is an American-Israeli professional baseball pitcher for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. 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. Wanger was included on the roster for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics. Early life. Wanger was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and is Jewish. His parents are David Wanger (who  played baseball at Harvard University) and Gwen Kane-Wanger (who played field hockey and lacrosse at Brown University). Some of his family, including his grandmother, are Holocaust survivors. He has a sister (Emily Wanger, who played basketball at Yale University) and a brother (Danny Wanger, who played football at Bowdoin). He now lives in Coral Gables, Florida. High school. At Belmont Hill School, he played for the baseball team. In his senior season, as a pitcher he had a 0.73 ERA in 48 innings, and pitched the first perfect game in school history. He was All-Independent School League in  2013, 2014, and 2015, and in 2015 was also the Independent School League MVP, "Prep Baseball Report" All-Massachusetts first team, and "Boston Globe" Prep All-Scholastic. He also played football (as a defensive end) and basketball (as a forward) for the school. College. Wanger first attended Yale University ('19), graduating with a degree in economics and environmental engineering. Playing for the Yale Bulldogs, he was primarily a first baseman and a pitcher. In his sophomore year in 2017 he batted .317/.415/.610(4th in the Ivy League) with 8 home runs (4th) and led the League with 48 RBIs. He was  named 2017 American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings NCAA Division I Northeast All-Region First Team, New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) Division I All-New England First Team, a unanimous All-Ivy First Team selection, and a first-team All-American (D-I) by the "Jewish Sports Review". In 2018, on the mound, he was 2-0 with six saves (2nd in the league) and an 0.90 ERA (leading the league), as in 30 innings over 16 games he gave up 21 hits and struck out 32 batters. He was named All-Ivy First Team as a relief pitcher, All -Ivy Second Team as a first baseman, and 2018 NEIBA Division I All-New England Third Team. After the 2018 season, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Wanger suffered a serious hamstring injury in the fourth game of his senior season in 2019, which caused him to have season-ending surgery and redshirt. In 2019-20 he attended the University of Southern California, where he was a graduate student in the Marshall School of Business studying for a Master in Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation while hoping to work in the  renewable energy sector. During the pandemic-shortened season in 2020 Wanger batted .410 (5th in 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. He was named "Collegiate Baseball Newspaper" All-America second-team. Wanger then attended the University of Miami as a graduate student at the Herbert Business School, earning a Master of Science in International Business. He pitched in relief for the Miami Hurricanes in 2021. Prior to the season, "Collegiate Baseball Newspaper" named him a preseason Second-Team All-American. In March 2021 he had  minor surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow, and he was back on the mound two months later. Professional career. In 2021, Wanger pitched for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He became a free agent following the season. On March 9, 2022, Wanger re-signed with the Barnstormers for the 2022 season. 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. 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. 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. Wanger was included on the roster for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics.