Balancing baseball and business

When Hayden Yost (BSBA ’26) started emerging as a top prospect at Sickles High School, he already knew what college he wanted to attend. Yost’s parents both attended the University of Florida, and once the Gators coaching staff offered Hayden the same opportunity, it wasn’t a difficult decision.

“UF was my dream school because of my parents going to school there,” Yost said. “When they got in contact with me and offered, that’s where I wanted to go.”

Following in his parents’ footsteps didn’t end when he enrolled at UF.

He researched multiple majors available at UF before ultimately deciding to pursue a bachelor’s in general business. That decision was fueled by his familiarity with business, growing up seeing his dad work as a financial advisor.

Yost hasn’t made a final decision about the career he wants to pursue, but financial advisor is one option, as well as other careers in finance.

“My dad introduced me to what he does and showed me how important finance is,” Yost said. “It showed me the importance of managing finances and paying attention to the stock market.”

Yost’s freshman season had plenty of ups and downs. He served mostly as a pinch hitter though the first half of the season before working his way into the starting lineup late in the year. Once he earned a starting role, Yost suffered a torn ACL at practice the day before Florida started its final SEC series.

After hitting .284 as a freshman in 2024, he had to spend the entire offseason rehabbing the injury.

“It was challenging to not play baseball and have to go through the PT and rehab before getting back on the field,” Yost said.

Yost started 55 games as a sophomore in 2025, hitting .259 with four home runs as a versatile piece of the lineup who played all three outfield positions. He finished the season healthy and experienced his first full offseason at Florida, allowing him to focus on improvement instead of rehabbing an injury.

That improvement came in the Cape Cod League, college baseball’s top wood bat league, during the summer of 2025.

“It was pretty cool, not many people get to go there,” Yost said. “It really is its own baseball league where you get to just play every day and not worry about school. It was a cool experience to meet new guys and play college baseball against the best from other schools.”

Yost has also been a standout in the classroom at the Warrington College of Business. He was named to the 2024 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll and the 2025 SEC Academic Honor Roll. He will graduate in three years with his bachelor’s degree. With early morning workouts and afternoon practices during the offseason, time management has been an important skill to develop.

“It’s definitely challenging,” Yost said. “So much of our spring is focused on baseball, it can be tough to find balance to perform on the field and take care of your work in the classroom. It’s difficult, but we signed up for it and know how to make it work.”

After making it to the Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series in 2024, the Gators were quickly eliminated from the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Yost is confident in this team’s chances for a bounce back.

“We’re a really good team and I like our team chemistry,” Yost said. “We have a chance to be really good win a lot of games, get to Omaha and win the whole thing.”