Ivy League Tabs Kretzschmar Player of Year, Cox Top Rookie

HANOVER, N.H. — The Ivy League postseason awards for baseball were announced this afternoon by the conference office, and Dartmouth outfielder Kade Kretzschmar was named the Player of the Year while shortstop Tyler Cox garnered the Rookie of the Year award. Both players were unanimous selections for the All-Ivy League First Team, as was Justin Murray as a utility player, while the Big Green collected seven other honors as well.

Murray also earned a spot on the second team as a starting pitcher, joining third baseman Connor Bertsch, reliever Jack Metzger and starting pitcher Trystan Sarcone. In addition, a third starter on the mound, Nathan Skinner, along with catcher Nathan Cmeyla, received honorable mention with the former also garnering a spot on the Academic All-Ivy League Baseball Team. Dartmouth's 10 selections trailed only the two teams who tied for first in the final standings, Penn and Columbia, each of which had 11.

A 6-2, 205-pound senior from Carlsbad, California, Kretzschmar is the fifth Big Green player to be selected as the Ivy League Player of the Year. In the 21 Ivy League games, the lefty swinger led the loop with an OPS of 1.249 and 29 runs while sitting second in average (.405), hits (34), doubles (12), total bases (65), slugging percentage (.774) and RBIs (25). He also swatted five home runs, reached base at a .475 clip and twice hit long balls in the seventh inning that gave Dartmouth a lead it would not relinquish. Overall on the season, Kretzschmar ranked among the top six in the Ancient Eight in triples (5, first), RBIs (46, third), total bases (106, third), slugging (.635, third) OPS (1.041, third), average (.353, fifth), doubles (16, fifth) and hits (59), while also launching seven home runs.

Cox, a sophomore from Valley Glen, California, was a terrific catalyst for the the Big Green offense and a slick defender in the field. His .464 average in conference play easily led the league, garnering him the Blair Bat Award as well, and he also topped the circuit with 45 hits and a .514 on-base percentage. He also was third with seven stolen bases, fourth with 59 total bases, sixth with 23 RBIs (even as the leadoff hitter in 19 of the 21 contests), and seven with 25 runs, nine doubles and a 1.122 OPS, plus committed just one error for a .987 fielding percentage. For the full season, the 6-1, 185-pound product of Harvard-Westlake hit a league-high .402 (currently 10th in Division I and the first Big Green player to top .400 in 18 years) with 74 hits, 10 doubles, a triple, one home run, 41 runs and 40 RBIs while being the 11th-toughest player in the country to strike out.

Just the third Dartmouth player to earn all-conference honors at more than one position in the same season, Murray hit .348 against the Ivy League with seven doubles, three homers and 22 RBIs. The 6-0, 195-pound right-hander also was a weekend starter on the mound for the Big Green, going 4-0 with a 5.06 ERA in six conference starts, striking out 30 in 32.0 inning while walking only 10 batters. The overall numbers at the plate for the native of Charlotte, North Carolina, included a .352 average, four home runs and a league-leading 20 doubles, one shy of the school record and third nationally on a per-game basis (0.5).

Bertsch, a 6-4, 200-pound junior from West Roxbury, Massachusetts, hit .305 with seven doubles, a homer and 23 RBIs in the 21 Ivy games. But his defense did just as much as his bat to earn him a spot on the second team as he did not commit an error at the hot corner in 52 chances in league play. His full-season numbers included a .331 average, 13 doubles, five four-baggers, 35 RBIs and a .929 fielding percentage.

Filling the role of Dartmouth's closer, Metzger handcuffed Ivy opponents to a .191 average in 10 appearances spanning 18.1 innings, striking out 17 and walking a mere two batters. The 6-4, 210-pound junior right-hander from Powell, Ohio, nailed down five saves with a 2.45 ERA in the league. Metzger finished the season with a 2-2 record, 3.66 ERA, a league-best six saves, 32 strikeouts and nine walks in 39.1 innings of work.

Sarcone, a senior from Greenwich, Connecticut, tied for third in the league with four victories in seven conference starts (eight appearances) with the fifth-best ERA at 3.60. In five of those seven starts, he surrendered no more than two earned runs. The 6-1, 195-pound southpaw had superb control, issuing a league-low 1.97 walks per nine innings over the entire season while posting a 6-4 record and a 4.85 ERA over 59.1 innings.

The honorable mentions went to Skinner, hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, as he also won four games in the conference with 36 strikeouts and just nine walks over a team-high 42.1 innings; as well as Cmeyla, a native of Ashburn, Virginia, who hit .329 against Ivy pitching with five doubles, three triples, three round-trippers and 10 RBIs while catching all but two innings. Skinner secured his place on the Academic All-Ivy League Team with a 3.60 GPA as a neuroscience major.

Rounding out the major awards were Penn right-hander Kevin Eaise as the unanimous pick as the Pitcher of the Year, and Columbia head coach Brett Boretti as the unanimous choice as the Coach of the Year after leading the Lions to the Ivy League title.

Notes: The other Dartmouth players to be chosen as the Player of the Year are Brian Nickerson (2000), former big leaguer Ed Lucas (2004), Nick Santomauro (2009) and Dustin Shirley (2018) … the other two Big Green players to be named all-conference at two positions are Dave DeMarco (second-team pitcher, honorable mention first baseman in 1977) and former big leaguer Mark Johnson (first-team utility, second-team pitcher in 1989) … in Bob Whalen's 33 years as the head coach, Dartmouth has had 77 first-team selections while no other Ivy team has had even 60.

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