By the time he gathered his Yale ballplayers to explain why he was writing seniors into a new lineup, “damn Twitter” had gotten to them first. So coach John Stuper only could confirm that their game that March night, their 10th of the 2020 season, would be their last.
Stuper, a former Cardinals pitcher who knows how abruptly a playing career can end, put a senior at designated hitter, where a junior had been. For the starting pitcher, he chose a senior who had been limited by injury to seven appearances in four years at Yale.
Hours after the Ivy League announced the pending end to spring sports because of the onrushing pandemic, all seven seniors on Stuper’s roster — including five pitchers — would appear in that 8-3 loss at Jacksonville University on March 11.