Yale’s Stiegler, Otaka to do grad years elsewhere

Alex Stiegler, a star pitcher and infielder for the Yale baseball team, is heading to Boston College in the fall as a graduate transfer. Dai Dai Otaka, a senior infielder, will do the same at Johns Hopkins.

The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all spring sports athletes whose seasons were cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yale ruled against eligibility for fifthyear seniors, forcing those interested in continuing their college careers to look elsewhere.

Stiegler, Yale’s captain, should make an immediate impact at Boston College. The Dallas native was firstteam all-Ivy League as a junior, striking out 76 batters in 76 innings. He made the NCAA Corvallis Regional team as a freshman, when Yale knocked off Nebraska and Holy Cross before losing to top-ranked Oregon State. He was batting .318 this spring when the season was canceled after 10 games.

Otaka, from Novi, Michigan, was hitting .375 when the season was canceled. A shortstop and second baseman, he was considered one of the top defensive infielders in the Ivy League.

WANGER AN ALL-AMERICAN

Benny Wanger, a pitcher/first baseman who graduated in 2019 from Yale, spent this spring as a grad transfer at the University

of Southern California. The two-way star was in the midst of a monster season, leading the Trojans in hitting and ERA when the season was called.

The Newton, Mass. native was hitting .410, fifthbest in the Pac-12 Conference, with five extra base hits and eight RBIs. He’d also not allowed a run in six relief appearances with three saves, including back-to-back saves in wins

over No. 22 TCU and No. 2 Vanderbilt.

Earlier this week, he was named second-team AllAmerican by Collegiate Baseball.

Wanger, who’ll compete for Israel at the Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for the summer of 2021, was informed by USC that they don’t have the scholarship money to bring him back next season. Several powerhouse programs are interested, including Miami, Cal and Cal St. Fullerton.

UCONN LOSES ISKHAKOV

Ruslan Iskhakov, a rising junior on the UConn men’s hockey team, signed a one-year contract with a Finnish professional team, according to multiple reports. The Moscow native made the choice for financial reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Iskhakov, a secondround pick of the New York Islanders in 2018, scored 21 points in each of his two seasons at UConn.