Sunday afternoon, Yale catcher Jake Gehri set a new Ivy League record with four home runs in a single conference game as the Bulldogs blew out Princeton (YU, 13, PU 6). Gehri went 4-for-5 with two grand slams, a two-run homer, and a solo homer in the game. He drove in 11 runs total.
Here’s video of Gehri’s historic afternoon:
“Hard to come up with words to describe Jake Gehri’s performance,” Yale head coach John Stuper said. “It’s no secret he’s been struggling a bit at the plate. But I’m incredibly proud of the way he has not let his offensive struggles affect his catching. He is catching better than I’ve ever seen him. Leading. But he had an historic day at the plate today. Wow.”
Going into Sunday’s game Gehri owned a .184/.288/.204 batting line with no home runs and only 3 RBI in 16 games this season. The senior then boosted his season slash line to .241/.328/.481 in one afternoon. Gehri hit 10 home runs total from 2019-20. The 2021 Ivy League season was canceled because of the pandemic.
The exact number of four-homer games in Division I history is unknown, though there have been at least eight since the NCAA began keeping single-game statistics in 2012. The all-time record is six homers in a single game by Florida State’s Marshall McDougall in 1999.