Dartmouth gets green light
- Updated: February 25, 2022
HANOVER — One can’t blame players on the Dartmouth baseball team if they have more than their share of butterflies when they take the field on Friday afternoon at Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium. Due to the cancellation of the remainder of the 2020 season after seven games, as well as the entire 2021 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Green has not played an intercollegiate game in nearly two years. Four days shy of two years, to be exact.
Don’t expect Louisville, which has played 58 games since the Green last took the field, to take pity on Dartmouth. This is a program that reached the College World Series four times during the decade of the 2010s with its sites set on going all the way in 2020 when the season came to a halt. But after a 28-22 campaign last year that ended without an NCAA Regional for the first time in 10 years, the Cardinals will be concerned only with trying to get back on top.
Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has the same goal he has every year — win the Ivy League title. But that journey is quite a bit more unknown than in years past with 21 of the 32 players on the roster having never appeared in a Division I game, and another six who have played in no more than seven contests. Granted, nearly every team in the conference is in the same boat (except Penn, which was able to play 14 games last year).
The area where the Big Green has the most experience is on the mound with two right-handers — Justin Murray (6-0, 195, Sr.) and Nathan Skinner (6-3, 210, Sr.) — who were part of the weekend rotation as freshmen in 2019, plus southpaw Trystan Sarcone (6-1, 195, Sr.), who has appeared in 14 games, starting three. The trio has combined to hurl 162.2 innings and will make up the starting weekend rotation. But the rest of the staff has a grand total of three appearances and 3.1 innings to their collective name.
Murray will anchor the rotation with his solid repertoire of pitches with pinpoint control as he was walked a mere 1.7 batters per nine innings in his career. At the start of his sophomore campaign, he was displaying the ability to be the staff ace, recording a 1.38 ERA in his two starts spanning 13 frames with a quality start against Virginia (two earned runs over six stanzas).
Like Murray, Skinner — one of the team’s co-captains — has very good control (2.6 walks per nine) with a live fastball and quality off-speed pitches to keep hitters off-balance. Twice he was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week in 2019, and he went on to finish that season second on the team in ERA and strikeouts.
Sarcone will give Dartmouth a left-hander in the starting rotation for the first time since the Big Green had four during the 2013 season, three of whom went on to play professionally. Since that season, only 10 of the 254 games Dartmouth has played have been started with a southpaw on the bump. This lefty showed great improvement in his control from his freshman to sophomore seasons, and he is primed to provide quality innings throughout the year.
The rest of the staff is essentially untested, but senior right-hander Cole Roland (6-3, 205, Sr.) will be a valuable arm either out of the bullpen or challenging for a slot in the rotation, despite the fact that he has yet to throw a pitch for the Big Green due to injuries and the pandemic. But he proved his ability in the NECBL last summer, earning all-star honors, and he will begin the year as the closer, likely called upon to get more than three outs at a time if needed.
Other pitchers expected to get plenty of opportunities out of the gate will be right-handers Will Shepherd (6-3, 220, Jr.), Brady Chappell (6-4, 200, So.) and Tyler Cortland (6-4, 215, So.), along with lefties Jack Metzger (6-4, 210, Jr.) and Devin Milberg (6-1, 175, So.). That being said, a host of others are waiting in the wings, ready for an opportunity they will almost assuredly get at some point early in the season.
Not much is set in stone in the field, however, with no one owning more than 75 at-bats and only two having at least 30. Senior Kade Kretzschmar has the most experience and will man right field for the Big Green. A solid defender with a strong arm, he is ready to provide the bat he showed in the Futures League back in the summer of 2019 when he hit .349 and posted an OPS of .963.
Center field will be roamed by junior Kolton Freeman to start the year, though he is more likely to slide over to left once junior James House returns from a preseason injury. Freeman got his collegiate career off to a good start in 2020, hitting .278 with a double, triple and homer in the seven games, and his bat will be utilized in the middle of the order. House has a smooth stroke from the left side with some power, as he put on display at Virginia by launching a home run in one of his four at-bats as a rookie.
With House on the shelf, some of the younger players will get some chances to prove their worth, including sophomore Tyler Robinson and freshman Jackson Hower. The duo could be set up in a platoon situation with Robinson swinging from the left side and providing excellent speed. Hower has a bigger frame at 6-4 and 220-pounds and provides pop from the right side. Whalen could also turn to Ryan Schwartz (5-10, 175, Jr.), a transfer from Haverford College, where he had 70 at-bats in two seasons with the Fords.
On the infield, Whalen has three players vying for positions up the middle. All three of Bryce Daniel (6-1, 175, Sr.), Tyler Cox (6-1, 185, So.) and Elliot Krewson (5-10, 165, Fr.) all have the ability to play shortstop or second base, and all three will get the opportunity to play both positions early on with the other possibly serving as a designated hitter. Daniel played second part-time as a freshman, then took over at shortstop for his sophomore, but never got a chance to settle in there. He is adept at finding a way on base at the plate with a discerning eye and is a stolen-base threat on the base paths. How Cox and Krewson will adapt to the college game remains to be seen, but they have a good feel for the game and will get every chance to make an impact, likely at the top of the lineup.
Another platoon scenario could be playing out at the hot corner with juniors Connor Bertsch (6-4, 200, Jr.) and Peter O’Toole (6-3, 210, Jr.). Bertsch is a right-handed hitter who hit .270 in 63 at-bats over the summer, while O’Toole hit .312 in 61 at-bats the Futures League. Both are steady defenders at the position, giving Whalen options at third, and if both play well, either could end up as a DH.
At the other corner position, Max Zajec (6-0, 205, So.) has shown good power potential from the left side, while Murray could serve double-duty and play first base when he isn’t pitching. Murray, like his high school teammate Daniel, has an excellent understanding of the strike zone and showed some gap power in his few games as a sophomore.
A big concern for the Big Green is the fact that not a single catcher on the roster has caught one inning in college, not since Ben Rice signed with the New York Yankees after being selected in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. But Nathan Cmeyla (5-11, 190, So.) is putting those concerns to rest with solid receiving skills and a bat that will probably put him near the middle of the order. A pair of rookies, Zackarie Casebonne (5-11, 205, Fr.) and Luke Carroll (6-1, 190, Fr.) will spell Cmeyla from time to time, and Schwartz can even fill in at the position if needed.
After the three-game series at Louisville, Dartmouth will play a four-game set at Gardner-Webb in North Carolina next weekend before winter exams create a 10-day break from games. When play resumes, the Big Green will head to Florida for eight games in the Sunshine State before returning to Hanover for the Ivy League opener against Brown at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park for a doubleheader on March 26. Those will be the first games at the facility in over 1,000 days (1,057 to be exact). That date can’t come soon enough for Dartmouth at its fans.
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