University of Pennsylvania Athletics

The 2023 Ivy League Coach of the Year and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) East Region Coach of the Year, John Yurkow was promoted to W. Joseph Blood Head Coach of Baseball in July 2013 after serving seven seasons as an assistant coach with the University of Pennsylvania baseball program.

Following three of the most successful seasons in program history from 2022-24 when Penn won a combined 91 contests, a pair of Ivy League regular-season titles, and two Ivy League Tournament championships, Yurkow holds a 227-188-1 record as the Quakers' head coach that includes a 117-67-1 mark in Ivy League play. He is third on the program's all-time wins list behind only Bob Seddon (634 wins from 1971-2005) and Walter Cariss (309 from 1920-43). Yurkow is one of five coaches in program history to reach 100 wins (doing so against Cornell on April 12, 2018) and just the third to reach 200. That victory came against Harvard during the 2023 Ivy League Tournament, the second of three straight victories that gave Penn the title in the Ivy's inaugural four-team postseason setup and the Quakers' first NCAA regional bid since 1995.

Penn returned to the NCAA Championship for a second consecutive season in 2024 after battling back through the loser's bracket of the Ivy League Tournament to claim its second consecutive crown. The fourth-seeded Quakers beat top-seeded Columbia in the opener, but fell to Cornell in the next game. Penn won three games in a row, including two over the Big Red on the final day to win the title. The Quakers lost two close contests in the NCAA regional—a 4-2 defeat to host Virginia and a 10-9 loss in 12 innings to St. John's—to end the run in Charlottesville.

At the 2023 NCAA Championship, Penn was seeded fourth in the Auburn regional but stunned the top-seeded Tigers and third-seeded Samford which made the Quakers the first Ivy League team to start postseason play with two wins since the NCAA went to four-team regional format in 1999. That put the Quakers in the regional final against second-seeded Southern Miss, and the Golden Eagles were able to beat Penn twice to advance to the Super Regional.

Under Yurkow’s tutelage, Penn broke the program record for wins in a season with 33 in 2022, then broke the mark again a year later with 34 in 2023. Overall, the Quakers have surpassed 20 wins in eight of his 10 full seasons, finishing with a winning record in all seven of the eight campaigns. (Penn played just eight games in 2020 and 14 games in 2021 due to Ivy League regulations regarding COVID-19).
 
Over his 10 full seasons as head coach of the Quakers, Yurkow has produced 69 All-Ivy selections including three Players of the Year, three Pitchers of the Year, three Rookies of the Year, 31 first-team selections, 19 second-team honorees, and 19 honorable mentions. On top of the All-Ivy selections, Yurkow has great experience preparing his athletes to compete at the next level, with 11 players selected in the MLB Draft since his promotion in 2013.

Following two seasons cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Quakers set a slew of program records in 2022, most notably breaking the 30-win plateau for the first time in program history, finishing the year 33-15, including a program-record 17 victories in Ivy League play, winning all seven conference series. Penn hit 50 home runs, had 328 RBI, and struck out 484 batters, all program records. The team’s 362 runs scored were the most in a single season since 1893, while their 506 hits were the second-most in program history.
 
In 2019, the Quakers’ offense had a marquee year. Penn set program records in hits (533), doubles (109) and RBI (320). The Quakers set the bar in the Ivy League in each of those categories, additionally leading the conference with a .334 team batting average, .422 on-base percentage, .497 slugging percentage, 354 runs scored and 8.6 runs per game.

Not only was Penn’s offense the gold standard of the Ivy League in 2019, it also put the Red and Blue in the national spotlight. The Quakers ranked second among all Division I programs in batting average (.334) and doubles per game (2.66), third in scoring (8.6 runs per game), fourth in on-base percentage (.442) and triples per game (.54), and ninth in slugging (.497).
 
Those big numbers landed the Quakers eight All-Ivy selections including a league-leading four first-team selections, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year in Christian Scafidi, and the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in Josh Hood. With Hood’s unanimous selection, three of the last four Ivy League Rookies of the Year were representatives of Penn. To cap the year off, senior captain Matt O'Neill was selected by the New York Mets in the 20th round of the 2019 MLB Draft.
 
Despite multiple losses throughout the team due to graduation and the MLB Draft, Yurkow fielded a competitive squad in 2018, falling just short of a return to the Ivy League Championship for the second consecutive year. The Quakers concluded their 2018 campaign 16-25-1 overall and 9-11-1 in Ivy play, wrapping up the year with a pair of consecutive wins against Yale, the regular-season Ivy Champ.
 
In 2018, Penn tallied four All-Ivy selections, headlined by Eduardo Malinowski who was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Malinowski was joined by Matt McGeagh as Penn’s two first-team selections.
 
Yurkow took the Penn baseball program to new heights in 2017, leading the Quakers to the Ivy League Gehrig Division title and sealing a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series for the first time since 2007. Penn finished 23-22 overall with a 12-8 mark in Ivy play.
 
Penn had four All-Ivy selections at the end of the 2017 season, led by unanimous first-team picks Tim Graul and Jake Cousins. Graul, the 2017 Ivy League batting champion, finished his career with three top-five marks in the program's record books, while Cousins' 20 career wins rank third in Penn's all-time history. As a team, the Quakers finished first in strikeouts (350) and second in doubles (88) among the conference ranks.
 
In 2016, Yurkow led a freshman-heavy roster to a 19-22 record and a second-place finish in the Gherig Division. At the end of the season, Graul was voted Ivy League Player of the Year and Matt O’Neill was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year. O’Neill was the first Rookie of the Year selected under Yurkow’s leadership with the Quakers.
 
Yurkow guided Penn to a 22-15 record with a 16-4 mark in Ivy League play in 2015. The 16 Ivy League wins are the most in program history. The Quakers led the Ivy League in earned run average on the mound and slugging percentage at the plate, while finishing second in batting average and home runs offensively. Penn finished 14th in the country in slugging percentage with a .494 mark.
 
Senior catcher Austin Bossart was named Co-Ivy League Player of the Year in 2015, the first under Yurkow, and the fifth in program history. He was also a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, recognizing the nation's best catcher.
 
During Yurkow’s first season as head coach in 2014, Penn finished with a 24-17 overall record while going 15-5 in Ivy League play. The Quakers tied Columbia for first in the Gherig Division standings but were bested by the Lions in a one-game playoff for a bid to the Ivy League Championship Series. Penn totaled nine All-Ivy selections at the end of the 2014 season, including four first-team honorees.
 
Yurkow arrived at Penn as an assistant coach after serving as an assistant at Duke from 2001-05. He began as a volunteer assistant, then was promoted to assistant coach and co-recruiting coordinator in January 2003. His responsibilities included all aspects of the team offense and teaching the hitting philosophy as well as overseeing infield play. Yurkow also served as an assistant at his alma mater, Rowan University, from 1999-2001.
 
Yurkow was a four-year starter at Rowan where he played second base. During his career, he helped lead the Profs to the NCAA Regional championship four times. In Yurkow’s senior year, he garnered NCAA Division III All-America honors as he led the Profs to a 36-8 record and the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) championship. He was also a two-time selection to the NCAA All-Mid-Atlantic Region team, in 1998 and 1999. Yurkow was an NJAC All-Conference selection in 1998 and 1999 and the NJAC Tournament MVP in 1999.