“Never Give Up”: These baseball teams have defeated 141 consecutive losses

Two longest winning streaks in college baseball history ended Tuesday when Jesus College and Lehman College stood out in an exciting doubles game in Tinek, NJ

Lehman College, a public institution near the Bronx in New York, has been in a 42-game winning streak. The Lightning Men's Baseball team has not won the game since defeating Baruke Academy in New York on May 9, 2023. But in the first game of the doubles on Tuesday, Lehman broke the winning streak with a 7-6 victory over Jesseva.

The second game happened the same drama. Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish school with four campuses in New York City and has been suffering a more painful streak – 99 consecutive losses date back to February 27, 2022.

After a tense draw, the game entered an extra situation, and in the eighth, the key hit rate typed gave Lehman a victory.

Lehman pitcher Justin Chamorro had a great performance, throwing a full game and hitting a career-high 13 hitters. He talks with him happen Host Nil Köksal about victory.

Congratulations, Justin. How do you feel?

Oh, it's an urgent sense of relief. I'm so happy. This is a victory. It's the hump we need to overcome. I appreciate it.

It took such a long time. How do you complete a similar game after the game is over?

A lot of courage and perseverance.

As a team, it's difficult because not only I speak for myself, but after a lot of losses, your morale starts to drop. Like, “When will it happen?”

It's just a matter of time. The problem at that time happened to be yesterday.

What you learned from all this [previous losses] As a team, did you win this time?

It's definitely a situational hit, getting smart in different counts – like a batsman knows what counts are, knows what to expect and performs those counts.

And on defense, it’s more integrated, especially when it comes to different transitions in defense that we want to run somewhere or different ways in defense. This definitely plays a key role, and after all these losses come together, we have to feel each other.

In yesterday's game, did you think “good, maybe”?

When we were leading in seventh in the seventh inning, I knew I was going there and have another inning.

I was like, “I'm going to lock in this game and we're going to secure this victory for Lehman.” I just know.

Anyway, I am full of confidence in this and I am grateful that my teammates picked me up on my back.

The moment you realize you're winning, I saw some videos on Instagram and understandably, there's a little plunger out there. But, at that moment, what did you feel?

I'm very proud that you know it's a New York native from the Bronx.

This school has many obstacles and adversities. I don't know if you can make it, but I just said, “We're here, we're here.”

Because we represent this school. I represent everything I went through, all the struggles the program went through. We're done. That's the daylight we need to see.

I had a conversation with Dan Sarmiento earlier this week [who] In the game. He is YouTuber and he thinks part of the problem may be funding. But you are on the team – have you won before?

Actually, this is one of the biggest problems. I feel that if we have the resources we need, we will certainly compete at a higher level.

Support is also a problem. I mean, this school is more recognisable [its] Basketball and track and field, we didn’t really get that much shine and attention.

a lot of [our] The player is still very young. This is a reconstruction. After our year last year, it was difficult.

What I want to say is funding, support, lack of equipment, lack of resources, because we are tied with our hands and doing our best, and that's true.

Is this like a turning point?

I think so. I know, I hope I prove to my teammates that we can definitely do it together.

I need them to invest like us [in] The first game. We take one step at a time.

I know the coach [Chris] Delgado put a lot of time into it and he really put everything he has into this plan and that didn't invest much in us.

He really makes our business provide us with nutritional plans, exercises, practices, representations. I gave him a lot of props.

What did Coach Delgado say after the victory?

Congratulations on your first victory, I told him the same victory. We both laughed because it was a long journey for both of us and he was recently appointed as head coach. This is an achievement.

What is the response on campus? I'm sure there are a lot of ribs happening in your winning streak.

Oh, my goodness. I'm glad to stop the nonsense I hear around campus, it's all the negative emotions.

The softball teams were there to support us and they were a great support system yesterday and I’m very grateful to them. I also got different players from different teams and congratulated us, which felt different.

In each of these losses and in yesterday’s victory, there must be a life lesson. What does this teach you?

Indeed, I can give you the most clichéd lesson: Never give up.

But it tells me that even in the face of adversity, it builds a character. All of these losses build the character and it's all about showing you it's worth it.

All the hard work is worth it, all the effort you put in, all the concentration you put in, ultimately it is worth it – although it's just the beginning.