Yale head coach John Stuper offered some advice to his players as they were spread across the country during a COVID-canceled Ivy League season last spring.
As 2022 started to draw closer, it was quickly clear that the Bulldogs followed the advice of their skipper, who announced last month that he would retire following his 30th and final year at the helm of the program.
“Only one class in our clubhouse has played an Ivy League game, so it was a really hard year,” Stuper said. “We asked our kids, like I’m sure everyone did, to go out and get bigger, stronger, throw harder, become more explosive, whatever. They did that in spades. I’m really proud of them.”
Left-handed pitcher Rohan Handa took that advice “to the extreme,” adding 12 miles per hour to his fastball — 86 to 98 in 18 months — on his way to becoming a fifth-round pick of the San Francisco Giants last July. The would-be senior, who was pitching for the NECBL’s Mystic Schooners early in the summer, is the 37th draftee under Stuper at Yale.
