Team Awards Bestowed, Captains Named for 2023 Season

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth head baseball coach Bob Whalen gathered his team last week to announce not only the team awards for the 2022 season, but also to reveal the captains for the 2023 campaign. In a vote by the players, Justin Murray was selected as the MVP while Kolton Freeman and Trystan Sarcone were named captains for the upcoming season.

Murray, the first true two-way player for the Big Green in over two decades, was a unanimous selection for the All-Ivy League First Team as a utility player and also earned second-team honors as a pitcher, making him just the third player in program history to be selected by the league at two positions in the same season. The 6-0, 195-pound senior from Charlotte, North Carolina, finished the season hitting .352 with a conference-leading 20 doubles, four homers and 32 RBIs along with an on-base percentage of .416 and a slugging percentage of .586. On the mound, Murray was 4-3 with a 7.57 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 52.1 innings, but his best work came in the crucial games against the teams in the Ancient Eight as he went 4-0 in six starts with a 5.06 ERA over 32.0 stanzas, fanning 30.

The Pitcher of the Year was bestowed upon senior Trystan Sarcone. The 6-1, 195-pound southpaw from Greenwich, Connecticut, was selected for the All-Ivy League Second Team as he led Dartmouth with six wins, a 4.85 ERA and 49 strikeouts on the season, not to mention leading the circuit in fewest walks issued per nine innings (1.97). In conference play, Sarcone 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.

Sophomore shortstop Tyler Cox, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, was an easy choice as the team's top rookie. Another unanimous first-team selection for the All-Ivy squad, the 6-1, 185-pound native of Valley Glen, California, posted a league-leading .402 average — currently 12th in the nation and the first Big Green player in 18 years to top .400 — with 10 doubles, a triple, home run, 41 runs and 40 RBIs while being the 10th toughest batter to strike out in the country. His .464 average in Ivy games led the loop by 59 points, garnering him the Blair Bat Award as the league's leading hitter, and he committed just one error in the 21 conference contests for a stellar .987 fielding percentage (.961 over the entire season).

The Best Offensive Player Award went to the Ivy League Player of the Year, senior Kade Kretzschmar. A 6-2, 205-pound outfielder from Carlsbad, California, Kretzschmar littered his name among the league leaders, ranking among the top seven in triples (5, first), RBIs (46, third), total bases (106, third), slugging (.635, third) OPS (1.041, third), average (.353, fifth), doubles (16, sixth) and hits (59, seventh), while also launching seven home runs. He was even more productive against the Ancient Eight with a .405 average, 34 hits, 12 doubles, 25 RBIs, 65 total bases and a .774 slugging percentage (all second-best in the league) while leading his conference counterparts with 29 runs and an OPS of 1.249.

Third baseman Connor Bertsch was chosen as the Most Improved Player. The 6-4, 200-pound junior from West Roxbury, Massachusetts, had just five at-bats to his name entering the year primarily due to having nearly two full seasons canceled by the pandemic. But he quickly became a steady force at the plate, reaching base in 35 of his 40 games, and finished the year with a .331 average, 13 doubles, five homers and 35 RBIs. But his most noticeable improvement came at the hot corner as he shook off the rust and committed just two errors over the final 28 games (.973 fielding percentage), and neither miscue came in conference play.

Dartmouth's Teammate of the Year was awarded to senior co-captain Cole Roland. The right-handed reliever from Duxbury, Massachusetts, was the most energetic and demonstrative player on the team, encouraging teammates throughout each game and heartily congratulating them at every opportunity. But he also performed his job well on the mound, utilizing his 6-3, 205-pound frame to strike out 11.1 batters per nine innings (37 in 30.0 innings) while sporting a 3.90 ERA with a 2-1 record and four saves as the opposition hit just .228 against him.

The final award — and the team's oldest, dating back to 1946 — was the James H. Cooke Award, given to the four-year letter winner who has done the most for Big Green baseball during his career. This honor went to Big Green's other co-captain, senior Nathan Skinner, a 6-3, 210-pound right-hander pitcher from Jacksonville, Florida. Dartmouth's number one starter throughout the Ivy League season, Skinner led the Big Green with 63.1 innings on the mound and matched Sarcone with 49 strikeouts while producing a 5-4 record and 6.25 ERA in 11 starts, earning All-Ivy League honorable mention. He finished his career with an 8-11 mark and 6.09 ERA, plus was chosen for both the Academic All-Ivy League Baseball Team and the Academic All-District I Team as a neuroscience major with a 3.60 GPA.

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