Yale Athletics

The Yale men’s baseball team (18–8, 6–3 Ivy) trekked up to Providence this past weekend for a weekend series versus the Brown Bears (5–19, 1–8 Ivy). After falling to Fairfield University 15–11 (22–8, 10–2 MAAC) in a sloppy midweek game, the Elis came away with three hard-fought victories. 

To kick the weekend off, the Bulldogs secured a gutsy 7–6 win on Friday in the first leg of their double-header that day.  

“That win was huge for us,” sophomore center fielder Kaiden Dossa ’27 told the News. “Coming off a tough, back-and-forth game against Fairfield, we knew we had to reset and come out strong this weekend.”

Although Brown went up one in the bottom of the third, senior Alec Atkinson ’25 then reached on an error to score Max Imhoff ’25 and knot the game at three a piece. The lead then shifted hands multiple times before Dossa was able to bring home Hayden Sobecki ’25 on a sac fly to left to put Yale up 7–6 in the top of the ninth. 

“Being able to scratch across that run with Hayden’s speed at third base and come out on top helped start the momentum that carried into the rest of the weekend,” said Dossa. “As a team, we didn’t have any doubt, and that was a lot to do with a commitment to our consistent offense approach and having guys picking each other up when some guys are struggling.”

Apart from Dossa, the Bulldogs received significant offensive contributions from Garrett Larsen ’27 who had four hits in as many at-bats, plus another two from Atkinson himself. Despite being out of the lineup since March 22 with a broken hand, Atkinson was more than ready to get back in the batter’s box.

“Coming back for that first game felt similar to the first game of the season,” Atkinson told the News. “There were a lot of jitters … more so eager to see how my hand would feel. You just really don’t if you can be the same player as before, and those hits kind of validated the fact that I can.”

In the second game on Friday afternoon, first-year phenom Jack Ohman ’27 started on the mound for the Bulldogs. Three-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, he showed once more that he is simply one of the most dominant pitchers right now in all of D1 baseball. He tossed eight innings, while only allowing one run and three hits. He also fanned 11 batters before being pulled out by head coach Brian Hamm and the staff with three outs remaining.

“I would’ve liked to go back out there for the ninth inning, but my pitch count was getting pretty high,” Ohman told the News. “In the moment, I definitely wanted to finish the game; I always want the ball in my hands. In retrospect, I think my coach made the right decision.”

While Ohman was able to completely shut down the Bears’ offense, senior catcher Imhoff and the rest of the Yale batters continued to find the barrel and helped secure a 6–2 victory. 

This season, Imhoff is batting a career-high 0.328, and he went four-for-eight with three runs batted in over the course of Friday’s doubleheader.  

“My approach has been to keep it simple, keeping my swing short and sweet,” Imhoff said.  “I always say I love hitting when there are runners in scoring position because you know what pitches you are going to get and all you have to do is hit a ball in play and you get a couple RBIs.”

After a day off on Saturday to recover, Yale bussed back to Providence to finish out the three-game series on Sunday. While Brown opened the scoring with a solo home run in the bottom of the first, Yale starting pitcher Daniel Cohen ’26 quickly settled into the game and pitched six stellar innings of two-run baseball. 

“Daniel Cohen pitching as well as he did today was huge for us,” said Imhoff. “The whole season, Danny has been an amazing competitor who has consistently delivered when he is given the ball and is a huge reason for the team’s success this season. Catching him is always a blast because I know that he is going to fill up the zone and make hitters miss.”

At the plate, Larsen continued his weekend hot streak with a triple to right-center in the third that scored two runs and put the Bulldogs ahead 3–2.  In the last two innings, sophomore pitcher Ben Winslow ’27 proved once again why Coach Hamm and the Yale staff can turn to him in big moments, as he came in and shut the door to seal a 7–4 win for the Bulldogs.

After two days of practice to start the week, Yale will head back north to face off against Holy Cross at Fitton Field in Worcester, MA. The first pitch is slated for 4 p.m.