NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Brian Hamm, who was announced as the Yale baseball team's new head coach last week, has earned the 2022 Skip Bertman Coach of the Year Award as the top coach at any NCAA level. The College Baseball Foundation announced the honor on Monday. Hamm led his previous school, Eastern Connecticut State, to the 2022 NCAA Division III National Championship. The Warriors went 49-3.
The national championship was Eastern's first in 20 years. Hamm's Warriors broke the school record for wins with 49 (tied for the second-most ever by a DIII National Champion) and tied the school record with a 23 game winning streak to end the year. They were ranked No. 1 in the nation from May 10 through the end of the season.
Hamm spent the past four seasons at Eastern Connecticut, leading the Warriors to the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and 2022. Under his leadership, ECSU went 108-30 (.783) overall and 38-10 (.792) in Little East Conference play. The Warriors were LEC Regular Season Champions in each of the past two seasons, going 15-1 each year and establishing the LEC record for regular season conference wins. They won the LEC Tournament this past year, going 4-0 and outscoring their opponents 35-8. Hamm earned the LEC Coach of the Year Award and the D3baseball.com New England Region Coach of the Year Award for the second year in a row. He was also named National Coach of the Year by D3baseball.com for his work.
Hamm takes over a Yale program that has won eight Ivy League Championships, including two in the past four seasons, and produced 41 MLB draftees. John Stuper retired as head coach at the conclusion of the 2022 season after leading the Bulldogs for 30 years.
Hamm is a 2002 graduate of Middlebury College, where he was a two-sport captain (baseball and soccer). He holds a master's degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management. He is a native of Terryville, Conn.
The Bertman Award, named for legendary LSU head coach and National College Baseball Hall of Famer Skip Bertman, is open to coaches at any level of college baseball. Hamm was selected by a national committee of active and retired coaches from all levels. Past winners of the award include Jeremy Sheetinger from Georgia Gwinnett College (2021), Erik Bakich from Michigan (2019), Jeff Willis from LSU-Eunice (2018), Kevin O'Sullivan from Florida (2017), Tim Scannell from Trinity University (2016), Paul Mainieri from LSU (2015), Tim Tadlock from Texas Tech (2014) and Mike Dickson from Gloucester County College (2013).
Hamm will be recognized by the College Baseball Foundation later this year.
