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| Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com |
Brian Hamm, who directed the Eastern Connecticut State baseball program to its fifth national title in his fourth season as head coach in 2022, has resigned his position in order to accept the appointment as head baseball coach at Yale.
In three non-COVID seasons (2019-21-22), Hamm averaged 34.7 wins per year at Eastern, compiling an overall four-year record of 108-30 (78.2 percent) which included a 4-1 mark in 2020.
"The hardest part about leaving is that Eastern is family to me," said Hamm. "This place has a way of drawing people in, Eastern people have so much pride in what we do here and I think people around the state can see that. This is a truly special place and I'm going to miss it."
Hamm was named Little East Conference Coach of the Year for the second straight season in 2022 and was named D3baseball.com Coach of the Year for leading the Warriors to the national title.
This past spring, Hamm led the Warriors to their first NCAA Division III national title in 20 years, with the club's 49-3 record setting program records for wins and winning percentage (.942) and the season-ending 23-game winning streak equaling the longest in program history. The team won the Little East Conference, Rochester, NY Regional and Mansfield, CT Super Regional championships before sweeping to five wins at Cedar Rapids, IA en route to the national championship.
At Eastern, Hamm posted a three-year Little East Conference record of 38-10, including back-to-back 15-1 seasons and LEC regular-season championships in his final two years.
In 13 seasons as a head coach – including nine at Amherst – Hamm has compiled a won-loss record of 329-143. His teams qualified for two NCAA tournaments at Eastern and four NCAA tournaments at Amherst, where his teams also won two NESCAC championships.
After commuting nearly two hours from his home in New Haven while coaching at Amherst and 90 minutes from his home in Branford during his tenure at Eastern, Hamm's drive from Branford to Yale will be less than 20 minutes -- a factor which impacted significantly his decision to accept his new position. It will be Hamm's first foray into the Division I level, as he has spent his entire career as a player (Middlebury), assistant coach (Amherst) and head coach on the Division III level.
Eastern has begun its search for its ninth head coach in the program's 74-year history.