O'Dowd Chosen as Ivy Co-Rookie of the Year

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth freshman catcher Chris O'Dowd (Cherry Hills Village, Colo.) was selected as the Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Year by the conference coaches, while a total of six Big Green players earned All-Ivy honors for the league champion. A Dartmouth player has been the Rookie of the Year each of the last two years and six times overall — more than any Ivy school — since the inception of the award in 1993.

Four members of the second team came from Dartmouth — junior first baseman Jason Brooks (Westlake Village, Calif.), sophomore shortstop Joe Sclafani (Palm City, Fla.), sophomore outfielder Jake Carlson (The Woodlands, Texas) and sophomore relief pitcher Cole Sulser (Santa Ysabel, Calif.). O'Dowd and sophomore pitcher Kyle Hendricks (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) both earned honorable mention honors.

Despite being sidelined at the start of the season with a case of mono, O'Dowd gradually worked his way into the lineup and took over as the team's starting catcher. He is currently fourth in the Ivy League with a robust .382 batting average and third with a .664 slugging percentage, plus leads the loop with a .489 on-base percentage. His six homers are tied for the team lead while he ranks second on the squad with 29 runs, 11 doubles, 73 total bases and 23 walks. Behind the plate, he has not committed an error in 155 chances. In conference play, O'Dowd hit a team-leading .385 with eight doubles, two homers and 12 RBIs.

Brooks was a solid performer all year at first base, but has really come on strong during the last month, hitting .435 in the last 19 games (15 of which were against Ivy competition). Overall the product of Oaks Christian is hitting .357 with six homers and a team-high 42 RBIs, the 10th most RBIs in a season at Dartmouth. His six round-trippers tie him for the team lead, as do his five triples and 51 hits. Brooks has played in all but one of the Big Green's 43 games so far and has a .991 fielding percentage, having committed just three errors. The finest game of his career came in the Rolfe Division title clincher against Harvard when he went 3-for-3 with a double, triple, home run and six RBIs in the 9-0 victory.

Sclafani, last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year, earned All-Ivy honors for the second straight year having been on the first team as a freshman. For the season, he is hitting .329 with one home run and 20 RBIs, and his 51 hits are tied for the team lead with Brooks. He also tops the squad with 11 stolen bases, 31 runs scored and 30 walks, the last of which ranks third in the league. In the field, Sclafani is one of the league's best defenders having posted a .939 fielding percentage. Like Brooks, Sclafani has also finished the year strong, hitting .403 over the last 19 games.

As the Big Green's center fielder, Carlson has run down just about everything that has come his way with exactly 100 putouts and a pair of assists without committing an error. At the plate, he is hitting a solid .309 with seven doubles, a pair of home runs and 20 RBIs. Carlson is third on the team with 46 hits and fourth with 26 runs scored, plus has been hit by six pitches.

Sulser could very well have been the MVP of the Ivy Championship Series if one were selected, having won game two out of the bullpen and saved game three, tossing at least three innings in each contest. For the year the right-hander has thrown 52.2 innings and posted an ERA of 3.76 while allowing the opposition to hit just .241 against him. He leads the Ivy League with 55 strikeouts and has walked just nine and surrendered just two home runs. Sulser sports a spotless record of 7-0, tying him for the conference lead in victories, plus has four saves to his credit. Of the 17 games in which he has pitched, Dartmouth won 15.

Hendricks has a 4-5 record for the season, but went 3-2 in conference play with three complete games and the best-pitched game for the Big Green this year with a two-hit shutout in a 9-0 win over Harvard to clinch the Rolfe Division title. His 51 strikeouts put him in a tie for third in the Ivy League, and he is one of three pitchers in the conference to throw four complete games. Hendricks also has 54.2 innings pitched, the seventh most in the league.

Penn outfielder Tom Grandieri was named the Ivy League Player of the Year after earning the Blair Bat Award as the conference player with the best batting average in league play (.458). The Pitcher of the Year was Columbia right-hander Pat Lowery, who beat Dartmouth in the first game of the Ivy Championship Series, while his teammate, outfielder Dario Pizzano, shared the Rookie of the Year Award with O'Dowd for hitting .374 with 12 homers and 36 RBIs.

For the complete All-Ivy teams, go to the Ivy League website.