2006 Season in Review

2006 Postseason Awards

Ivy League Awards
1st Team All-Ivy Will Bashelor '07, Josh Faiola '06
2nd Team All-Ivy Damon Wright '08
Honorable Mention All-Ivy Jeff Wilkerson '07

Team Awards
Most Valuable Player Josh Faiola '06
Rookie of the Year Johnathon Santopadre '09
Pitcher of the Year Josh Faiola '06
Most Improved Player Russell Young '08
Best Offensive Player Will Bashelor '07
Teammate of the Year John Huelskamp '06
James Henry Cooke Award Josh Faiola '06

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

The change of the calendar was all that was needed at Red Rolfe Field. One season removed from a 14-21 overall record and 8-12 mark in Ivy League play, Dartmouth reverted back to the program that has posted an 84-56 record over the past seven seasons with a 20-19 record, and an impressive 13-7 Ivy League effort, the second best in the conference.

Entering his 17th season, head coach Bob Whalen guided a team that had 19 of its 29 players either in their freshman or sophomore year. Two losses to Hofstra opened the season for the Big Green before the team departed on its annual Spring Trip. Two nationally ranked opponents and several perennially strong teams awaited the team on its second trip to the West Coast in five seasons.

On Day One of the trip, the Big Green fell, 7-6, to UC-Santa Barbara in a game that Dartmouth led late. Freshman Michael Pagliarulo clubbed his first collegiate homerun in the loss.

The following day the Big Green began a three-game set with No. 21 Pepperdine. Sophomore Kyle Zeis came on in relief of classmate Russell Young and earned his first collegiate victory, firing five shutout innings as the Big Green defeated the Wave 3-2 in eleven innings.

After wrapping up the series in Malibu and falling by a single run at Cal State Northridge, Dartmouth headed north for a brief two-game series with No. 28 Cal Poly. Sophomore Jason Blydell's sacrifice fly and senior Tommy Myette's run-scoring single were part of a three-run seventh inning that propelled the Big Green past the Mustangs, 6-4, giving the College its second win over a nationally ranked opponent in a week. Senior co-captain Josh Faiola allowed just five hits over eight innings to pick up the victory. For his efforts, Faiola earned Ivy League Pitcher of the Week honors.

Sporting a 2-9 record but back in the familiar Northeast, Dartmouth rattled off eight wins in ten games, starting with a midweek contest at Quinnipiac, an NCAA regional participant in 2005. Dartmouth won the 13-11 slugfest with Myette knocking in three runs while freshman Kyle Evans walked three times in the final non-conference tune-up before the start of Ivy League competition.

After its offense was quieted to just five hits and one run in the opening game of the League play, Dartmouth responded with a season-high eighteen hits in a 16-6 victory over Cornell, which was also victory number 300 for Whalen in his head-coaching career. Blydell led the hit parade, as the sophomore was one of six players to collect two or more hits while driving in three runs. Faiola picked up his third victory of the season, scattering nine hits in the complete game effort.

The offense continued its torrid hitting one day later by recording twenty two hits in a pair of victories over eventual Ivy League champion Princeton. Game One's slim victory, 7-6, was highlighted by junior Will Bashelor and sophomore Damon Wright. The pair had two RBI apiece in the opener while junior Andrew Nacario finished the weekend 7-for-12 at the plate and knocked in a career-high four runs in the nightcap to lead Dartmouth to the victory.

Freshmen right-handers Ryan Marten and Andrew Mallory extended Dartmouth's win streak to four with a convincing 7-1 victory over Siena. The duo allowed just seven hits and walked no one while sophomore Jason McManis led the offense with two RBI.

Columbia and Penn marked the final match-ups against the Gehrig Division in the first home weekend of the season. After a quickly paced, 1-0 victory against the Lions that took just 80 minutes, Dartmouth pounded out sixteen hits in the nightcap to get a solid win, 12-2. The following day, Penn squeaked out an 8-7 decision to end Dartmouth's season-high winning streak at six games. A win for the Big Green in Game Two gave the club an impressive 6-2 mark against the Gehrig Division, the same record the 2005 team had at the same juncture. Ivy League Player of the Week went to Myette while Young was named Co-Pitcher of the Week.

While Dartmouth experienced success against the Gehrig Division, so was the rest of the Red Rolfe Division. All told, the Big Green's division went 26-6 against their League rivals. Despite a 8-2 setback in Game One at Brown, the squad rallied back for a pair of thrilling 3-1 victories over the Bears. In the series finale, eight runs in the first two innings would be enough to hold off Brown for another three-win weekend. Wright had a key single before Myette's second homerun of the season broke the game open.

Sitting in first place and with a favorable schedule showing six of the final eight League contests at home, the Big Green hosted Yale for another four-game set. Holding a one-run lead in the sixth, Dartmouth's bats woke up and brought home four more runs. Nacario had a key two-run single in the inning before junior Jeff Wilkerson came on to notch his first save of the season. Faiola pitched a heroic twelve innings but still come up short in a 2-1 loss to even the series at a game apiece. Rain halted the series for three days, bringing Yale back to Hanover mid-week for another split. Bashelor's two doubles in Game Three helped Wilkerson to his second win of the season before Yale claimed the nightcap, 13-9. The split of the four-game set left the Big Green alone in second place, one game behind Harvard.

With a chance to claim its fourth division championship in seven years, Dartmouth traveled south to take on the Crimson for the first two games of the series. Russell Young yielded just one unearned run in a 10-inning marathon that went to Harvard, putting Dartmouth on the brink of elimination. But a pair of three RBI days from freshman Raymond Allen and Wright sent the series back to Hanover. Wilkerson shutout the Crimson, 4-0, to make the series finale a winner-take-all affair for the Red Rolfe Division title.

In front of a capacity crowd, Dartmouth battled back from deficits of 4-0 and 9-5 to even the contest, 9-9, in the seventh inning. Wright highlighted the inning with a two-RBI single before Allen evened the game with a double to left field. The roller coaster grounded to a halt, though, as the Crimson pulled ahead in the eighth and claimed its second Red Rolfe Division championship in as many seasons. Allen earned Rookie of the Week honors for his performance against Yale and Harvard.

The Big Green reached the 20-wins plateau for the fifth time in seven years two days later at Hartford. Young was credited with his second save of the year while senior Chris Lapointe picked up his third victory of the season.

In recognition of their efforts throughout the 2006 campaign, four players were recognized with All-Ivy Honors. Bashelor and Faiola led the way with first team All-Ivy honors. Faiola led the League in wins with six while sporting a conference-best 2.45 ERA. Bashelor finished second in the League in both batting and on-base percentage. Wright, who hit .421 in Ivy League games, was a second team honoree while Wilkerson's 3-0 mark against Red Rolfe opponents earned him honorable mention.

Schedules