On This Day in Baseball History April 18, 1923: In the annual match-up between then Columbia College (now Columbia University) and Williams College, starting pitcher Lou Gehrig of Columbia (Yes, THAT Lou Gehrig) strikes out 17 Williams batters but loses the game by the score of 5-1. Four of the five runs are due to four bases on balls, a hit batsman and a wild pitch by Gehrig.
Luckily for us Baseball fans, Gehrig decided to focus on playing 1B and hitting when he made his way to the New York Yankees later that year.
On a side note, curious on who has the most strikeouts in a Collegiate Baseball game? That honor belongs to Buddy Schultz of Miami University of Ohio who in a game against Wright State on April 3, 1971 struck out 26 batters in a 6-0 victory. You can read more about that in the following article: Will the single-game strikeout record ever be broken? by Mike Lopresti from NCAA.com dated May 8, 2017
For Further Reading:
WILLIAMS DEFEATS COLUMBIA BY 5-1 from the April 19, 1923 edition of the New York Times
Lou Gehrig from the Columbia 250 website
LOU GEHRIG from the Columbia University Athletics website
