Yale Athletics

The Yale baseball team (31–14, 16–5 Ivy) came up just short this weekend in the Ivy League Tournament. After a season in which the team hit 30 wins for the third time in program history, the Bulldogs dropped two close games to Harvard (14–28, 9–12) and were eliminated one game short of the championship. 

“Baseball can be an unforgiving sport,” head coach Brian Hamm told the News. “We are disappointed that we didn’t play to the level of our preparation leading up to the conference tournament and we will look back to learn why.”

He added: “Our performance and the results from the weekend don’t diminish what we accomplished throughout the year. After the initial disappointment we will have much to be proud of and much to look fondly on.”

The Elis first took the field against the Crimson at noon on Friday in the first game of the four-team, double elimination tournament at George H.W. Bush ’48 Field. Since Yale won the regular season Ivy League title, the Bulldogs earned the right to host the playoff tournament.

First-year phenom Jack Ohman ’28, a pitcher who was recently named as a semifinalist for the 2025 Golden Spikes Award, started on the mound for Yale. Ohman tossed a gem of a game, only allowing three runs in seven innings. However, Harvard ace Callan Fang also pitched extremely well and held the high-flying Bulldog offense to just one run.

“Yale swung the bats pretty well, maybe not as well as they had the last couple of weeks, but the main thing for Yale was that they love to get guys on base early in innings and then bunt, steal and create havoc for other teams,” Yale play-by-play and ESPN+ announcer Justin Gallanty told the News. “Harvard did a really good job of limiting Yale’s baserunners with less than two outs, so they weren’t able to execute their gameplan quite like they wanted to.”

After the 3-1 defeat, the Bulldogs were scheduled to play the loser of the University of Pennsylvania (21–20, 13–8) versus Columbia (27–17, 16–5) game. After the Lions came away with a 4-3 win in 10 innings of nail-biting baseball, the Bulldogs knew for certain that they would take on Penn the following day.

On Saturday, the Elis came out of the gate hot, scoring two runs in the top of the first. On the mound, senior-captain Colton Shaw ’25 pitched magnificently as he has done the entire season. 

Shaw pitched eight innings of one-run ball, and retired the first 12 batters he faced. His control and velocity were on full display, and his fastball hit 96 miles per hour multiple times throughout his start. Once again, he proved why any major league ballclub would benefit from having a pitcher like him in their system.

At the plate, Garrett Larsen ’27 and Tommy Martin ’25 both finished the game with two runs batted in, and they powered the Elis to a 7-1 trouncing of the Quakers. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Columbia took down Harvard, so the Elis were once again matched up with their rivals from Cambridge for a win-or-go-home game on Sunday afternoon.

Unlike in Friday’s game, the Bulldogs got off to a blistering start on Sunday. Kaiden Dossa ’27 hit a leadoff home run to left field, and Yale added three more in the second.  Dossa had two hits on Sunday, and his teammate Tommy Martin was also clutch all weekend long.

“Kaiden had a huge game, doing what he’s done all season, producing out of the leadoff spot and getting on base,” Pablo Rodriguez ’27 said in an interview. “Tommy’s a guy who’s as much of a team player as you’ll ever see. He does anything he can for the team, including wearing as many pitches as possible to get on base.”

Yet Harvard was able to battle back, and their junior slugger Gio Colesante continued his strong tournament performance. In the eighth inning, the Crimson put up three runs to go up 8-6, finishing the game.

While the Bulldogs were disappointed with their season cut short, it’s impossible to overlook all of the success they have had this year. This weekend marked the first time the Bulldogs had even played postseason games since 2018.

“This season helped lay the foundation moving forward,” Hamm said. “The greatest threat to a program is being content with the previous season, which is something that we are all responsible for making sure doesn’t happen. We can honor our seniors and the classes that have come before us by working hard in the off-season to build on our successes.”

After Yale’s loss, Columbia took on Harvard under the lights and overpowered the Crimson to win the tournament in dominant fashion. The Lions continued their impressive hot streak, and they are now 14–1 in their last 15 games. They will find out at noon on May 26 who they will play in the NCAA Tournament’s regional round.

For Yale, the loss also marked the last time that the 10-member senior class suited up in the blue and white.

“We will miss seeing the seniors on a daily basis,” Hamm said. “We built amazing relationships together and they mean so much to us on a personal level that it is devastating to know that they will be moving on and won’t be a part of our lives as intimately as they have been this past year.”

The Bulldogs will have starters returning to multiple positions. They include Ohman, who was named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, and third-baseman Jack Dauer ’28, who was this season’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Slugger Davis Hanson ’26 will also be ready to return to the lineup next year after a torn ACL kept him out for this entire season.

This year is the seventh time in Columbia head coach Brett Boretti’s tenure that the Lions are advancing to the NCAA Tournament.