Local slugger earns Ivy Rookie of the Year honors

When Will Savage took his position at second base for his first home game at Columbia University on March 31, he was a little more than a mile away from where he grew up playing baseball — on the North Riverdale Baseball League fields and at Fieldston School. 

Columbia’s Robertson Field at Satow Stadium is on the northern tip of Manhattan, very near the Riverdale neighborhood where he was raised. But Savage’s freshman season with the Lions took him to places he has never been.

The 19-year-old led Columbia with a .320 batting average, was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, won the Blair Bat Award given to the player with the highest batting average in Ivy League play (.414) and earlier this month, he was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America team.

“I wouldn’t say surprised,” Savage said when asked about his early success. “There was a lot of uncertainty going into the season, but I wasn’t too concerned at the beginning with the outcomes. I was just trying to improve each day.”

Platooned, at first

Savage began the season in a platoon role but quickly emerged as a top-of-the-order contributor on a team that won a program-record 29 games and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year, where it lost two heartbreaking, one-run games in the Coral Gables (Fla.) Regional.

Columbia started 2-3 in Ivy League play before winning 15 in a row — including 12 in the league — in an impressive hot streak that coincided with Savage’s emergence as an offensive force.  

“It was definitely a special season to be a part of, stringing all those wins together,” he said. “We had must-win games for about three or four weeks in a row, and then to experience everything that comes after it — going down to Miami [for the NCAA tournament] — it’s something everyone who plays college baseball dreams of. It was a thrill.”

Proudest moment

Savage said his proudest moment this season was the dog pile with his teammates after beating Dartmouth for the Ivy League title at Robertson Field in front of his parents, David and Yin Savage, and other family and friends.

Savage was born in London and spent the first year of his life there, but lived in the Riverdale area until enrolling at Columbia.

'Great experience’

“I had a great experience growing up in Riverdale, and the North Riverdale Little League was something that was very important to me, playing with my friends,” he said. “It was definitely a very positive experience.”

Columbia coach Brett Boretti joked that it’d “save a lot of our recruiting budget,” if he could find more players like Savage in the area.

“If we’re fortunate to find a Will Savage per class, that’ll really help us,” added Boretti, a former minor leaguer who just completed his ninth season at Columbia. “He’s a tremendous person, first and foremost. He can handle competition and adversity. As we say, ‘He’s comfortable being uncomfortable.’

“He’s certainly someone we’re looking to build around for our future.”

Savage will lay that foundation in the Lions’ middle infield — only it may be at shortstop rather than second base. Savage has expressed his desire to play shortstop, but he was forced to play second because the incumbent at short was Aaron Silbar, one of the team’s senior co-captains.

Savage has been playing both positions for his summer ball team, the Shelter Island Bucks of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, where he is also trying to build muscle and become more of a power hitter. Boretti believes Savage can do it.

“I believe he’s going to fill into a pro prospect because of his speed and his eventual size,” Boretti said, adding that Savage’s father is a big man. “What stood out with him right away was his athleticism. There’s so many things he can do.”

Indeed, Savage finished the season with 49 hits in 46 games (43 starts) and had eight doubles, a triple, a home run, 15 RBIs and 14 steals in 16 attempts. He also struck out only 17 times in 153 at-bats.

Away from home

Though Savage grew up so close to where he now plays, he said he feels like he is away from home “to a degree,” because Columbia’s main campus is on 116th Street, on the northern edge of the Upper West Side, which he called “a different world” from where he grew up. Still, he loves having his support system so nearby.

“That’s one of the best parts about it, having family, friends from home, friends from high school at some games,” he said. “It’s a nicer version of where I’ve always been playing growing up. It’s definitely special to be on the other side of the fence.”