Dartmouth fifth in Ivy Poll
- Updated: February 15, 2022
HANOVER — The Ivy League office announced the results of its 2022 Preseason Baseball Poll Tuesday with Dartmouth picked to finish fifth. Yale was picked to finish atop the standings with five first-place votes and 107 points.
With most Ivy League teams not playing many games since the 2019 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a bit of variance in the poll. Four teams received multiple first-place votes, including Columbia, which matched Yale’s five and finished just behind the Bulldogs with 102 points. Penn, the only team to play any games at all in 2021, garnered four first-place votes and 96 points to finish third in the poll, while Harvard was picked to win the league by two voters and placed fourth with 92 points.
Dartmouth, under the guidance of head coach Bob Whalen in his 33rd year at the helm of the program, picked up 72 points, well ahead of sixth-place Princeton with 47. Brown (35) and Cornell (25) rounded out the poll.
In their last full season, the Big Green had its streak of consecutive seasons above .500 in league play end at 11 with a record of 8-13 to tie for seventh, its fourth season in the bottom half of the conference standings since the start of the 2000 season. Dartmouth posted a 2-5 mark in 2020 before the pandemic shut the season down.
Experience is lacking throughout the league, but the Big Green has a pair of pitchers who were weekend starters as freshmen, giving them a leg up on the mound. Senior right-handers Justin Murray (3-6, 5.05 ERA in 67.2 career IP) and co-captain Nathan Skinner (3-7, 5.92 ERA, 59.1 IP) will anchor the rotation with senior lefty Trystan Sarcone (1-2, 8.33 ERA, 35.2 IP) the likely third starter after showing improved command and results early in 2020. The other co-captain, senior RHP Cole Roland, is expected to close out ball games for Dartmouth, though he has yet to throw a pitch in a college game due to injuries early in his career.
The lineup will be a little less experienced with only two players owning more than 30 career at-bats and none having more than 75. Whalen will look to his outfield trio of senior Kade Kretzschmar, junior Kolton Freeman and junior James House to provide some punch in the middle of the order, while Murray will serve double-duty as a two-way player with his gap power and excellent eye at the plate.
Dartmouth opens the 2022 campaign with a big test right off the bat with a three-game series at Louisville on Feb. 25-27. Big Green fans can get their first look at the team in person on March 26 at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park for the home-opening doubleheader against Brown.
| 2022 Ivy League Preseason Baseball Poll | |
| Team (first-place votes) | Points |
| 1. Yale (5) | 107 |
| 2. Columbia (5) | 102 |
| 3. Penn (4) | 97 |
| 4. Harvard (2) | 92 |
| 5. Dartmouth | 72 |
| 6. Princeton | 47 |
| 7. Brown | 35 |
| 8. Cornell | 25 |
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