Ivy League Tournament Preview
Brown’s Mika Petersen runs the bases at Attanasio Family Field (Photo courtesy of BVM Sports).
The four-team Ivy League Baseball Tournament starts today at 12:00 PM ET. The tournament is scheduled to conclude either Sunday or Monday depending on if the “if-necessary” game is indeed necessary, meaning that the Ivy League will be the first automatic bid clinched for the NCAA Tournament. Ivy League rules grant the host site to the top team in regular season conference standings, who this year is Yale. The Ivy League Baseball Tournament will take place for the second straight year at George H.W. Bush ‘48 Field in New Haven, CT. One more thing: I will be at this tournament for both of Sunday’s games! Be sure to keep up with THE Mid Major Rundown (@themidmajorrundownpod) and Gavin Butler (@gavinjbutler) on Instagram for live updates. I’ll keep this one generally the same format as the Southland Preview that came out on the site yesterday; without any further ado, let’s get into previewing this tournament.
(all times below listed in Eastern Time)
Friday, 5/15
[Game 1] 1 Yale vs. 4 Columbia, 12 PM
[Game 2] 2 Penn vs. 3 Brown, 4 PM
Saturday, 5/16
[Game 3] Elimination Game: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 12 PM
[Game 4] Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 4 PM
Sunday, 5/17
[Game 5] Elimination Game: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4, 12 PM
[Game 6] Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 6 PM
Monday, 5/18 (if necessary)
[Game 7] Winner of Game 6 vs. Loser of Game 6, 1 PM
(from 1993-2022, only a two-team championship series was held; the tournament format has been in place since 2023)
Recent Results
2025: 2 Columbia def. 4 Harvard (Most Outstanding Player: Anton Lazits, Columbia)
2024: 4 Penn def. 3 Cornell (Most Outstanding Player: Wyatt Henseler, Penn)
2023: 1 Penn def. 3 Princeton (Most Outstanding Player: Jarrett Pokrovsky, Penn)
2022: 2 Columbia def. 1 Penn
Editor’s Notes
Like the Southland, the parity is evident with the Ivy League. The host/top seed and lowest seed to qualify, Yale & Columbia respectively, are separated by just four wins. Columbia had also defeated Yale twice in the only season series between the two, before the third game ended in a 15-15 tie due to darkness. Yes, baseball games ending due to darkness in the year 2026. That serves as an ode to the chaos that has taken place in this conference tournament in the three-year span since its conception, as it is another that does not tend to have chalky outcomes. A different numbered seed has won the tournament each year, and a 3 or 4 seed has made it to the championship game in each of the first three iterations.
Yale, who is the host team for the second straight year, looks to clinch their first berth in the NCAA Tournament since 2017. The longest NCAA tournament drought in the Ivy League heading into the 2026 postseason is Brown, who last qualified for Regionals in 2007. Yale has been hot as of late, as since the aforementioned series against Columbia the Bulldogs have been on a four game win streak and have outscored opponents 26-7 in those four games.
The Bulldogs feature 2026 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Tate Evans. The 6’0 Senior has been nothing short of incredible this season; heading into the Ivy League Tournament, Evans’s stats show a 2.86 ERA, a .224 batting average against, and an impressive 73-12 K/BB ratio in 72.1 IP. It has yet to be announced which game Yale will send Evans out there for, but Yale has a solid offense to get behind as well. The Bulldogs are second in Ivy League conference play in runs scored and have three players in the top 12 for hits in Garrett Larsen, Kaiden Dossa, and Chris DiPrima. Also having home field advantage and their recent struggles against Columbia having occurred on the Lions’ home turf, Yale has a solid recipe to advance in the field.
Penn and Brown also just played one another, and match up fairly evenly on paper. Penn has been quite hot recently, winning five of their last six games to wrap up the regular season. The Brown Bears on the other hand, won just two of their final six on the schedule. The final three games for both teams include a series at Penn’s Tommy Lasorda field in which the Quakers won both of the last two contests after dropping the first. The presence of Ivy League Player of the Year Mika Petersen can serve as Brown’s rebuttal to Penn’s recent performance and series win. Petersen has been truly ridiculous in conference play as he leads the Ivy in OPS, hits, and batting average and sits in the top ten in home runs, doubles, and triples as well.
The Penn vs. Brown game is highly intriguing in that it should set up to be a clash of styles. The Quakers led all of the Ivy League in batting average, runs scored, OPS and walks drawn while the Bears sit middle of the pack in most offensive stats. Brown has been the best team in Ivy League play defensively; their team ERA of 3.92 paces second-placed Dartmouth by almost half a run and Penn by over a full run. Brown sustained a 21-18 record over the entirety of the regular season; in six of those wins they were able to hold the other team scoreless. Brown is one of just twelve teams in the country to have attained at least six shutouts this season, and this is yet another point to show that the Bears have the pitching depth to make a run in this tournament.
It should also be noted that Brown’s only win over Penn this season resulted in a 13-9 final score, showing that Brown does have the bats to hang with other teams as well. The question is, will the lineup around Petersen be consistent enough to take Brown to the promise land? While Brown’s pitching depth is quite impressive, Penn’s strength is the depth in their lineup. The Quakers saw four players selected to the All-Ivy League First Team (C Ernie Echevarria, OF Gavin Degnan, OF Jarrett Pokrovsky, DH Jack Warner), and carry an impressive team OPS of .769. Pokrovsky in particular has shown that he can succeed in this spot before, as his 7-for-15 effort in 2023 won him the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award.
The fourth seed to make it into this year’s Ivy League Tournament is the Columbia Lions. Do not count them out in any capacity however, as the Lions have been sneaky in multiple games this season. The Lions knocked off West Virginia in Morgantown back in March, and also took two wins over Yale and one win against both other teams in the field. Outfielder and All-Ivy League Second Team selection Cole Fellows has been spectacular all season, hitting to a .970 OPS with 8 home runs on the year. The Lions also occupy second place in the Ivy for conference play batting average, and are tied for third in runs scored. The pitching depth is this team’s question mark, sitting above just Cornell and Princeton in conference ERA. If this team could get a couple good starts out of their guys however, they are live to take down anyone in this field and advance to a Regional.
Thank you all for making it this far, and like I said I will be in attendance and have media credentials for Sunday’s games. It is possible we see a champion get crowned Sunday and one of these teams clinch the first berth available in the NCAA tournament, either way these games will be exciting and intense. Live coverage will be on TheRundownPod’s Instagram (@themidmajorrundownpod), and before we get out of here I’ll drop some of my tournament predictions below for fun!
Editor’s Predictions
Championship Game: 3 Brown def. 1 Yale
Most Outstanding Player: Brown OF Mika Petersen
