2007 Season in Review

2007 Postseason Awards

Ivy League Awards
1st Team All-Ivy Nick Santomauro '10
2nd Team All-Ivy Damon Wright '08
Honorable Mention All-Ivy Kyle Zeis '08

Team Awards
Most Valuable Player Russell Young '08
Rookie of the Year Nick Santomauro '10
Pitcher of the Year Russell Young '08
Most Improved Player Eric Bell '08
Best Offensive Player Nick Santomauro '10
Teammate of the Year Andrew Nacario '07
James Henry Cooke Award Jeff Wilkerson '07

2006 MLB Draft Picks
24th Round Josh Faiola '06 (Baltimore Orioles)
28th Round Will Bashelor '07 (New York Mets)

Few teams in the Ivy League can boast the success that Dartmouth has had over the last seven seasons. Entering 2007, the Big Green had the third best overall program record in the Ivy League (1,556-1,558, 20 years, four behind leader Princeton). Dartmouth had won three Division titles and had sent numerous players to the professional ranks. But after averaging twelve Ivy League wins a season, Dartmouth stumbled from its usual perch among the top teams in the conference last year.

Youth was a big part of the team, with just ten players having played no more than two years. Among the many bright spots on the team was the play of freshman Nick Santomauro. A highly coveted recruit, Santomauro led the team in most offensive categories, including batting average (.395), doubles (9) and runs batted in (23). The native of New Jersey had 25 walks, the most since Bill Hanekamp recorded 28 free passes back in 1988.

Pitchers Jeff Wilkerson ?07 and Russell Young '08 each had impressive years with Young leading the team in ERA and Wilkerson with a team high three wins.

Entering his 18th season at the helm, head coach Bob Whalen took his team to the University of Cincinnati for opening day. After dropping their first two games, Young yielded just four hits in picking up the 8-4 victory over the Bearcats. Facing a 3-0 deficit, the Big Green offense responded to the tune of six runs in the third inning with Andrew Nacario, Mike Pagliarulo, and Santomauro each hitting run scoring singles.
After a ten-day hiatus from the game schedule due to final examinations, Dartmouth took to the road for its annual Spring Trip. While stiff competition awaited the team in the later part of the trip, the Big Green kicked off the excursion with two quick victories.

Jeff Wilkerson pitched the club's first complete game of the year as the senior struck out six in defeating Fairfield 4-1. In a briskly played 2 hour and 15 minute contest, Wilkerson yielded just six hits to the Stags but was helped by a pair of double plays turned by the Big Green defense. At the plate juniors Erik Bell and Jason McManis each had two singles in the victory.

Mother nature halted day two of the trip as Eastern Kentucky and Dartmouth played to a 1-1 tie. On the heals of his great effort at Cincinnati, Young struck out three and allowed just five hits before heavy rain brought an end to the day.

The team's record improved to 3-2-1 with a come from behind victory over the Minutemen of UMass the following day. Dartmouth tallied eighteen hits on the afternoon, including Bell's four hit, three RBI performance along with three additional hits off the bat of Pagliarulo. Catcher Kyle Evans launched his first career homerun deep beyond the left field fence to open the scoring up in the second inning. The Minutemen climbed back into the game despite deficits of 6-1 and 9-3 to even the game up at nine in the bottom of the eighth frame but the Big Green would respond with a five run ninth inning to take the lead and the win. Damon Wright had a run scoring single through the middle of the diamond before designated hitter Ray Allen and Santomauro added insurance runs in the form of two run singles. Reliever Kyle Zeis fanned four during his three innings of work to pick up the win, the third in four games for the Big Green.

Making your first career start is always memorable, and freshman Robert Young faced a daunting task when matching up with Ohio State in game seven of the season. But Young showed extreme poise in going seven strong innings against the eventual winner of the Big Ten, nursing a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning. Bell continued his hot start with the bat as he had two hits with Pagliarulo checking in with a pair of RBI's.

Narrow defeats at the hands of the University of Illinois by scores of 5-2 and 7-4, in which the team averaged 10 hits a game, concluded the team's southern trip and brought the team back to the Northeast.

In the opening weekend of the Ivy League season, the Big Green dropped its first game to Columbia before rebounding in the nightcap, 8-3. Wilkerson again tossed a gem, striking out seven in a complete game effort. Holding a narrow 1-0 lead in the fifth Dartmouth responded with four runs. Santomauro doubled home a pair before Pagliarulo opened the game up with a double of his own down the right field line, plating two. Allen's two run homerun in the ninth added insurance and gave the team its first win in Ivy action.

Weekend two was to mark the first league games at home but inclement weather forced the club to move its efforts south to Princeton. Against the Tigers, the reigning Gehrig Division champions, McManis' single through the infield lifted the club to a 2-1 triumph. A James Wren single in the third gave the team the first run of game before Princeton evened the contest up in the sixth inning. The Big Green created noise in the bottom half of the seventh as Brett Gardner was awarded first base after being hit by a pitch. Jason Blydell, running for Gardner, got to third base on a fielding error and scored on the McManis single. Young followed up Wilkerson's masterful pitching outing with one of his own, fanning seven without yielding a walk.

Weather again played havoc with Dartmouth's schedule as the double header against Brown was moved to Providence. Facing the eventual Ivy League champions, Big Green freshman third baseman, Wren, had what was arguably the finest weekend of his young career as he concluded the four-game set 6-for-15 at the plate while driving in four runs.

Against Yale, Dartmouth staged another comeback to claim a victory over the Bulldogs in the first day of action. Down 5-4 in the seventh inning the Big Green picked up three runs on as many hits. Allen knocked in a pair of runs with a one-out single and Ezra Josephson, making his first start of the season, knocked in what would be the winning run. Josephson had two runs batted in to go along with his career high three hits.

The Big Green dropped Game one against Harvard on senior weekend before rebounding again in the afternoon. Young claimed his first collegiate victory when he scattered eight hits over six frames. Bobby Steinsdoefer and Zeis came on to seal the victory as the pair struck out four over three innings of work. Dartmouth pushed across four runs in the first inning after the first two batters were retired. Allen again came up with another key two-run single before Jack Monahan singled in the final run of the frame.

The Big Green's second victory in three games came the following day with a 2-1 victory over the Crimson. In his final start of his four-year career Wilkerson out dueled Harvard ace Shawn Haviland scattering ten hits over seven innings. Solo runs crossed the plate for Dartmouth in the first and sixth innings. Wright, who made a position change from right field to center field this season, was credited with both RBI's a single in the first and a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

In May postseason awards were handed out with Santomauro, whose average hovered around the .400 mark for most of the season, named as one of three freshmen to be named to the All-Ivy First Team. Wright batted .313 in league action and was a second team honoree while Zeis was an honorable mention selection after 31 strikeouts in a little over 25 innings of work.

Schedules