A Look Back at a Memorable Season for Dartmouth Baseball

HANOVER, N.H. - Pundits were plentiful before the year's first pitch was ever delivered. Many preseason polls had Dartmouth finishing last in the Ivy League, but in the end, it would be a year to remember in Hanover.

Among the accomplishments enjoyed by the 2008 team: the sixth time in eight seasons Dartmouth has posted twenty or more wins (tied with Princeton for the most over that period), seven All-Ivy award winners, Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, the No. 1 ranked team in New England, the fourth Red Rolfe Division championship since 2000, and nearly a berth in the NCAA tournament.

With their first trip to Annapolis since their days together in the EIBL, the Big Green took two of three games against Navy, the preseason favorite to win the Patriot League. Co-captain Russell Young's (Cleburne, Texas) 1-0 victory got the team off on the right foot on opening day. After a setback in game two, Dartmouth battled back in the deciding game of the series, with senior co-captain Damon Wright (Dallas, Texas) and sophomore Brett Gardner (Bellevue, Wash.) each recording three hits in the 4-3 victory.

Dartmouth's swing through Florida on their Spring Trip started off on the wrong foot, with four losses in the first five games before good fortune, and the team's season, turned around. The team's sixth opponent in seven days would be no small task, as Big 12 member Kansas needed two runs in the top of the ninth inning to break a six all tie and claim an 8-6 victory. Young was once again brilliant, striking out seven in a little over eight innings of work. Wright, who missed the three previous games with an injury, returned to the lineup and was an instant threat, as he was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate, belting a pair of homeruns and driving in five runs.

The following day proved to be a coming out party for the Big Green offense, as Dartmouth scored 26 runs and launched five homeruns in splitting a marathon doubleheader against Army. Senior Erik Bell's (Sierra Madre, Calif.) four hit, two homerun, performance paced the lineup while senior Kyle Zeis (Solana Beach, Calif.) earned his first victory on the young season. That victory would catapult the team from there on out, as Dartmouth won its next seven games and 12 of the next 14. A 6-5 triumph over Northwestern in the final game of the trip was highlighted by the emergence of freshman Ryan Smith (Greenlawn, N.Y.), who recorded his first collegiate save.

Back in the friendly confines of the Northeast and facing an always formidable foe in the Bobcats of Quinnipiac, Dartmouth continued its winning ways, upping Quinnipiac 7-5. Six different pitchers appeared in the game, with Zeis earning his third victory of the season and Smith earning his second save in as many appearances. At the plate, freshman Jeff Onstott (Houston, Texas) stole the show, as the he tallied a season high five hits and belted his first collegiate homerun in the fifth inning. That victory would be a significant one, as it gave the team momentum on the march to its fourth Red Rolfe Division championship since 2000.

Dartmouth positioned itself as the leader of the Ivy League from the outset of the season, with a pair of victories over Princeton and Cornell in weekend one. Slim 5-4 and 8-5 victories over Princeton upped the team's record against the Tigers since 2005 to 7-1, as junior Jack Monahan (Overland Park, Kan.) and sophomore Johnathon Santopadre (Vacaville, Calif.) had two RBIs each in the nightcap. The following day in Ithaca, Dartmouth put on an offensive display, as the Big Green scored 29 runs on their way to two more victories. Junior Michael Pagliarulo (Winchester, Mass.) socked a pair of homeruns while sophomore Nick Santomauro (North Caldwell, N.J.) hit homerun number two on the season in route to the wins. The perfect 5-0 week was capped with Pagliarulo being named Ivy League Player of the Week, as the junior had at least two hits in all five games, while Onstott claimed his first Rookie of the Week award.

But as is usually the case, all good things must come to an end, and that was the case when the team's seven game winning streak came to a close the following Wednesday, as Siena College scored six runs in the eighth inning to down the Big Green 10-8. Undaunted by the loss, the team rebounded in the first home games of the season.

Ivy weekend number two brought the 2007 (Penn) and 2008 (Columbia) winners of the Lou Gehrig Division to Hanover. Young was economical again in picking up his third victory of the season, needing only an hour and 45 minutes to defeat Penn 5-1. And despite being out hit 10-3 by the Quakers, Dartmouth rallied for a 4-3 victory behind freshman Jake Pruner (Triangle, Va.), who scattered six hits in as many innings. The Lions of Columbia, the eventual winners of the 2008 Ivy League championship, handed the team its first setback in Ivy play before Dartmouth rebounded for a 9-3 victory in the nightcap. Senior Chase Carpenter (Bartlett, Tenn.) was masterful against the Lions, allowing just seven hits while the offense hit six doubles.

The team's next stop on their way to a berth in the Ivy Championship series brought them to Providence and the home of the Brown Bears. After splitting the first two games of the weekend, Dartmouth earned a key sweep by the scores of 9-7 and 16-14. The key to both wins came early, as Dartmouth outscored Brown 6-0 in the first frame of each game. In the opener, Santomauro clubbed a three-run homerun to pace the team early before senior Jason McManis (Flower Mound, Texas), who had two hits on afternoon, and Bell hit back-to-back round trippers in the sixth inning, helping sophomore Robert Young (Cleburne, Texas) to his third victory of the season. The finale was a marathon, with the two clubs combining for 30 runs on 39 hits. On offense, senior Jason Blydell's (Nahant, Mass.) season-high four hits and three RBIs played a crucial role in securing the team's 10th Ivy League victory while Smith logged save number six on the season with four innings of relief.

A critical home series against second place Yale followed, with Dartmouth ahead of the Bulldogs in the standings by two and a half games. But after an exhausting two days of the baseball, Yale left town exactly where it was when it arrived with just four games to play. A 5-3 setback in game one, in which Dartmouth lost the first game of a weekend series for the first time, was followed up by what could be considered as Pruner's best outing to date. In seven innings of work, the freshman totaled six punchouts while scattering eight hits to pick up a 13-6 victory. That effort was carried over in game four of the series. P.J. Gorynski's homerun in the eleventh inning gave Yale an 8-7 victory in game three, Carpenter got the team back in the winning track needing on ninety seven pitches in a complete game 7-2 victory.

Heading into the final weekend against Harvard, Dartmouth was in complete control of its future: any combination of Dartmouth wins or Yale losses totaling three and the Big Green would capture its fourth Red Rolfe Division under Bob Whalen's watch. And that would take only one day, as Santomauro and sophomore James Wren (Granbury, Texas) had two RBIs each in the team's 7-3 victory. Knowing that Yale had already lost game one, Smith coaxed a flyout from Harvard's Matt Rogers earning his school record seventh save of the season and propelling the Big Green into the playoff scene for the first time since 2004.

Mother nature would inflict her own presence on playoffs, as heavy rains pushed the start back two days. Game one featured an offensive assault by Columbia, as the Lions had a season high 20 hits on their way to a 11-7 victory. But facing first team All-Ivy pitcher John Baumann, Dartmouth exploded for 16 runs to force a deciding game three. The offensive explosion was led by a pair of sophomores, as Santomauro launched a pair of homeruns while Wren was a perfect 5-for-5 on the day. In the deciding game and playing in front of a capacity crowd, the Big Green fell behind 3-0 before taking a brief lead with a five-run fifth inning. Monahan brought the club to within one with his first career homerun, a two-run shot to right field before Santomauro again came to the team's rescue with a homerun. No one had a better three game set then Santomauro, as he would finish the series 5-for-11 with four homeruns and eight RBIs. But the Big Green's hopes for an Ivy League championship were dashed in the very next frame. Alex Ferrera's second homerun of the day gave the team a 6-5 lead and eventually sent the Lions back to New York with their first Ivy Championship in nearly 30 years.

And after the 2008 season ended with a 25-17 record, the best showing since the 2004 campaign, post season accolades would follow. Pitcher Russell Young, who finished with thirteen career victories, was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Year along with being a first team All-Ivy League selection. Erik Bell, an ESPN Academic All-District player as a senior, hit a career-high six homeruns and was named the first team All-Ivy shortstop. Mike Pagliarulo rounded out the Big Green's first team award winners on the infield, as he hit .396 in league play. In the outfield it was almost a clean sweep, as Nick Santomauro and Damon Wright were among the elite in the league. Nine of Santomauro's
team-leading eleven homeruns came during Ivy League competition while Wright's 39 RBIs were second on the team. Ryan Smith, whose seven saves broke Jonathan Miller's eight-year school record, was a second team honoree while Chase Carpenter, the only pitcher to have a perfect record within Ivy League starts, was an honorable mention All-Ivy Player. Regionally, for the first time in over 20 years, Dartmouth was named the top team by the New England Baseball Coaches Association. Head coach Bob Whalen was named New England Coach of the Year, Santomauro and Wright were placed on the first team, and Pagliarulo was a second team selection.

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