Yale Athletics

Over the spring academic recess, the Yale men’s baseball team (13–6, 1–2 Ivy) rattled off nine straight victories in dominant fashion. After dropping three games to The Citadel (14–12) in Charleston, South Carolina, the Bulldogs proceeded to catch fire starting with a 6-3 victory over Siena College (5–17) in their home opener at Bush ’48 Field.  

“The game plan was still the same for us and our mindset didn’t waiver after dropping those games to Citadel,” captain Colton Shaw ’25 told the News. “They were a good club that played clean baseball and we played some good baseball too but just came up a little short from a couple of mistakes. I think we showed up with a little more attitude after losing that series since we knew that wasn’t our standard of play.”

Against Siena, the Bulldogs scored six runs in the first two innings and sophomore Ben Winslow ’27 earned his first collegiate victory in a three inning shutout performance. Kaiden Dossa ’27 got Yale on the board first when he capitalized on a misplay by the Siena center fielder and turned a hard hit single into an inside the park home run. That type of aggressiveness — coupled with staying focused on the little details that lead to success — have been two of the key areas of focus for Yale baseball head coach Brian Hamm.

“We know our identity as a team and embrace it: aggressive in everything that we do pitching, offensively and defensively,” Hamm said. “One of our strengths is our preparation for everything that we do whether in practice, pre-game, or all aspects of competition. We have outstanding routines, centering practices and mistake rituals that we consistently apply, which have led to performing at our best abilities more often than not.”

Following the game against Siena on March 4, the Elis headed south to Houston to face off against Rice University (6–20) in a three-game series. On Friday night, the Bulldogs defeated the Rice Owls 8-4 and reliever Tate Evans ’26 got the win after pitching three and a third innings and allowing only one run. Yale then put up 18 runs over the weekend games to complete the sweep.

In the Sunday game, first-year Jack Ohman ’28 threw seven innings and allowed zero earned runs in just his third collegiate start. So far this season, he has not been responsible for any runs over the course of 25.1 innings. For Ohman, the winning mentality instilled by both Hamm’s staff and the older players on the team has played a large part in helping him succeed in these first collegiate outings.

“The upperclassmen and coaches here know how to breed a culture that uplifts players and calls them to be the best version of themselves,” said Ohman. “This culture allowed me to deal with failure during the offseason and still push forward and improve so that I could be ready by the time we started playing games. I think having that feeling is extremely important for young players adjusting because adjusting to life in college as an athlete, especially at Yale, is not easy. The people around you make it fun.”

After the Rice series, the Bulldogs traveled back to New Haven to take the field against Sacred Heart (11–11) on Wednesday, March 12. The Eli offense powered the team to a victory, putting up nine runs. Dossa had a monster game, and he again got the offense rolling with a triple down the right field line in the bottom of the first. Once more, the aggressive approach that Hamm has cultivated paid dividends.

“I have an approach at the plate that we’ve developed as a team that is to drive the ball hard and low the other way and to not take a single pitch off,” said Dossa. “This fall, I really focused on developing my strength and speed to elevate my game even further. Trusting this offensive approach has helped our team’s offensive identity we have built and it has heavily contributed to our early success so far this year.”

Following the midweek game against Sacred Heart, the Bulldogs had a three game series at Bush Field against Virginia Military Institute (16–9). Senior Max Imhoff ’25 tallied four runs batted in over the course of a Saturday doubleheader to help secure the first two wins.  

In the early afternoon game, Shaw pitched five innings and allowed only one run. With the team in the midst of a prolonged hot streak, it was critical for Shaw and the rest of the team to remain level headed.

“We were still focused on doing the little things right during the win streak,” Shaw said. “Our mindset was always that our record was 0-0 and that we wanted to start a new win streak even when we were in the thick of a pretty long one. As a team we know complacency will be our enemy this year so getting away from that content mentality was and will be our focus moving forward.”

On Sunday, the Bulldogs walked it off to extend the win streak to eight games. In the end, Alec Atkinson ’25 clinched the victory with a double in the bottom of the ninth that drove in both Dossa and Jake Williams ’25. While this was the tightest game of the bunch, the Bulldogs’ comeback proved that they can win a multitude of ways.

“We find different ways to win because we have a cohesive group of men with a strong team culture that cares deeply about each other, the team, and Yale,” Hamm told the News. “We take a lot of pride in the way that we play, which is very different than most teams. Our aggressive style of play is a lot of fun and puts other teams’ defenses under pressure presenting different ways to score runs.”

On Wednesday, March 19, the Bulldogs won in a 8-2 blowout of Quinnipiac (12–10–1), and the nine straight victories tied Yale’s best winning streak since 2017. They kicked off their Ivy League games the following weekend against Cornell.