FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
PRINCETON, N.J. — It has been since the late 1980s that Dartmouth hoisted a championship in Baseball. In 1987, the Big Green, led by star pitcher Mike Remlinger, brought the old EIBL championship to the friendly confines of Hanover, N.H. Since then, six other Ivy League teams have won the title as the Big Green waited for another shot at glory. That all changed in 2009 as Bob Whalen’s squad emerged to take the Ivy League Baseball Championship in the rubber match of a three-game series with Bill Walkenbach’s Cornell squad, all the while ending the 22-year drought.
The title marked the first for Coach Whalen but followed in a recent tradition of coaches winning a first Ivy championship. Marek Drabinski earned his first title when Brown swept to the 2007 crown and Columbia’s Brett Boretti took his first while visiting Red Rolfe Field in 2008. But in a new era of play at Dartmouth, under the banner of Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park, the stars aligned for the Big Green and its tenured coach of nearly two decades.
And to the victor goes the spoils…
Dartmouth was well represented on the All-Ivy selections, including two of three superlative awards for the 2009 season. Junior Nick Santomauro, also the Blair Bat winner, took both unanimous Player of the Year and first team All-Ivy accolades after a scintillating .824 slugging percentage in Ivy play. Dartmouth also had the unanimous selection for Rookie of the Year as Joe Sclafani stepped in to take over the void at shortstop left by the graduation of Big Green legend, Erik Bell. The freshman was amazing, earning unanimous distinction in Rookie of the Year voting in addition to first-team honors at shortstop.
Yale’s Brandon Josselyn picked up the Pitcher of the Year award for the League.
Santomauro hit .473 in Ivy play with 35 hits, including eight doubles and six home runs. The main fixture in the Big Green’s power alley, the junior tied for the League lead in runs batted in, with 26 in conference games. In all games, the now three-time first-team All-Ivy selection continued to impress, sporting a .378 batting average with 13 doubles, eight home runs and 37 runs batted in.
Sclafani led off for the Big Green and proved to be a reliable offensive option, starting all 19 League games that he played in, batting .388 with 31 hits. The freshman hit three doubles, three triples and two home runs in Ivy League games and had a .484 on-base percentage. He was 2-2 on stolen base attempts.
Josselyn carried a 3.41 ERA in 34.1 innings of Ivy work and posted a 3-1 record for the Bulldogs. The staff ace appeared in five games with four complete games. For the League season, the Eli surrendered just 33 hits and 13 earned runs while striking out 35, which only trailed Princeton’s Brad Gemberling for the best ratio in the League in 2009.
Joining Santomauro with first-team unanimous distinction are Brown’s Steve Daniels and Cornell’s Nathan Ford.
Daniels earned first-team honors after hitting .390 for the Brown Bears as a senior. A terror on the base paths, Daniels once again was the most active Leaguer in the stolen base category. His eight successes on 11 attempts (72.7%) was third only to Cornell’s Brian Billigen and Princeton’s Derek Beckman — both who were successful 77.7% of the time (7-for-9) — for players with at least six attempts. The outfielder hit five doubles, one triple and seven home runs for Bruno in Ivy play.
Ford led the Cornell resurgence in 2009. The senior — named first-team All-Ivy a year ago as the best utility player in the League — returns to the first team as an everyday third baseman. Ford hit .366 as a senior with five doubles and four home runs against the Ivy League and was the driving force for Bill Walkenbach’s club. His .606 slugging percentage in Ivy play led the Big Red to the championship series.
Ivy champion Dartmouth also named two additional first-team selections in outfielder Jim Wren and designated hitter Ray Allen. Through the Ivy League championship, Wren hit .336 with 46 hits and 42 RBIs. Seemingly always finding success in clutch situations, the junior led the Big Green in total RBIs and was tied for the lead in conference play with Santomauro. Allen also was a major contributor to the incredibly potent Dartmouth offense that batted .309 as a team through the title game. Allen had 44 hits in 138 plate appearances and smacked a team-tying eight home runs on the year. His prolific bat yielded a .565 slugging percentage on the year, including an eye-popping .635 in Ivy play.
Brown’s Matt Nuzzo and Robert Papenhause garnered first-team accolades in the second base and utility positions, respectively. Nuzzo earned the nod after the senior ended his Ivy career with a strong senior campaign, capped by a .395 batting average in League play and 25 runs batted in. He also belted seven home runs for the Bears against the Ancient Eight. Papenhause also enjoyed a stellar final season in Providence as he chased Santomauro for the 2009 Blair Bat honor. The senior batted .439 (29-for-66) and slugged a venomous .803 in Ivy play and secured 53 total bags in the process.
Completing Bruno’s resume on the first team selections was pitching sensation Mark Gormley. Emerging as Brown’s ace, Gormley was incredible in Ivy play, going 4-1 with a 4.26 ERA through 31.2 innings pitched. The sophomore held opponents to a .237 batting average and was only charged with 15 earned runs in League play.
Yale’s Trygg Larsson-Danforth gets the nod as the first-team first baseman. The junior hit .314 in Ivy play and was two-for-three on stolen bases. He will be looked upon as a vital cog in Coach Stuper’s plan for 2010 and should be even more selective after taking 11 walks in Ivy play. Solid with the bat, Larsson-Danforth had three doubles, a triple and five home runs against Ivy pitching.
Princeton’s Jack Murphy returns to the team from a year ago in the catcher position. In Ivy play, the junior hit .352 and supplied much of the power for the Tiger lineup, slugging .563. He had an on-base percentage of .417 in 2009 for League games and helped Princeton to a share of the Gehrig title at 10-10.
Closing out the first team selections is Cornell’s shut-down closer, David Rochefort, who sported a 2-2 record in 2009 League games with a 2.77 ERA through 13.0 innings pitched. Blessed with a wicked fastball and tight control, the junior held opponents to a .213 batting average and struck out 17 Ivy opponents. He finished the League season with five saves.
2009 All-Ivy Baseball
* – Unanimous Selection
Player of the Year: *Nick Santomauro, Dartmouth
Pitcher of the Year: Brandon Josselyn, Yale
Rookie of the Year: *Joe Sclafani, Dartmouth
Blair Bat Winner: Nick Santomauro, Dartmouth (.473 Batting Avg. in Ivy Play)
First Team
P – Brandon Josselyn, Yale (Sr., Hanson, Mass.)
P – Mark Gormley, Brown (So., Milton, Mass.)
RP – David Rochefort, Cornell (Jr., Arcadia, Calif.)
C – Jack Murphy, Princeton (Jr., Lakeland, Fla.)
1B – Trygg Larsson-Danforth, Yale (Jr., Belmont, Mass.)
2B – Matt Nuzzo, Brown (Sr., Everett, Mass.)
3B – *Nathan Ford, Cornell (Sr., Palo Alto, Calif.)
SS – Joe Sclafani, Dartmouth (Fr., Palm City, Fla.)
OF – *Nick Santomauro, Dartmouth (Jr., North Caldwell, N.J.)
OF – *Steve Daniels, Brown (Sr., Fox Point, Wisc.)
OF – Jim Wren, Dartmouth (Jr., Granbury, Texas)
UT – Robert Papenhause, Brown (Sr., Hillsborough, Calif.)
DH – Ray Allen, Dartmouth (Sr., Longwood, Fla.)
Second Team
P – Kyle Hendricks, Dartmouth (Fr., San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
P – David Palms, Princeton (So., Smithfield, R.I)
RP – Ryan Smith, Dartmouth (So., Greenlawn, N.Y.)
C – Dean Forthun, Columbia (Jr., Glendora, Calif.)
1B – Mike Pagliarulo, Dartmouth (Sr., Winchester, Mass.)
2B – Jeff Onstott, Dartmouth (So., Houston, Texas)
3B – Dan Williams, Penn (So., Southhampton, N.J.)
SS – Scott Hardinger, Cornell (Sr., Lynden, Wash.)
SS – Derek Vigoa, Penn (Fr., Miami, Fla.)
OF – Dan Shapiro, Brown (Sr., Basking Ridge, N.J.)
OF – Brian Billigen, Cornell (Fr., Carnegie, Pa.)
OF – Tom Grandieri, Penn (Jr., Media, Pa.)
UT – Stefan Schropp, Yale (Sr., Ft. Myers, Fla.)
DH – Pete Greskoff, Brown (So., Paoli, Pa.)
Honorable Mention
P – Joe Scarlata, Columbia (Sr., East Walpole, Mass.)
P – Brad Gemberling, Princeton (Sr., Swarthmore, Pa.)
RP – Matthew Kimball, Brown (So., Nashville, Tenn.)
RP – Matt Grabowski, Princeton (So., Voorhees, N.J.)
C – Adam Jacobs, Cornell (Sr., Del Mar, Calif.)
C – Tyler Albright, Harvard (So., Long Beach, Calif.)
1B – Mickey Brodsky, Cornell (So., Encino, Calif.)
2B – Dan DeGeorge, Princeton (Sr., Flemington, N.J.)
3B – Johnathon Santopadre, Dartmouth (Sr., Vacaville, Calif.)
3B – Harry Douglas, Harvard (Sr., South River, N.J.)
OF – Nick Cox, Columbia (So., Lake Mary, Fla.)
OF – Tom Stack-Babich, Harvard (Sr., Scituate, Mass.)
OF – Dillon O’Neill, Harvard (So., Naperville, Ill.)
UT – William Gordon, Penn (Jr., LaGrange, Ga.)
DH – Brian Berkowitz, Princeton (Jr., Marietta, Ga.)
