Indian Baseball: Scalping the Ivy League

By Curran Stockwell | Monday, April 24, 2000

This year, the turning point for Dartmouth baseball, it is possible to say, came before the season really began. On an early season tour of Florida, the Indians turned in a brilliant 6-5 win over the defending NCAA champions, the powerhouse program at the University of Miami.

Historians of Ivy League baseball, though they trumpet names like Gehrig, Remlinger, and Ausmus, do so with a highly developed consciousness of their context: Ivy teams can never really challenge the nation's best. But Dartmouth's early win over Miami has given the Indians a rare confidence for an Ivy squad: it has instilled in them the belief that they are doing something special.

Led by a senior class with such outstanding members as Conor Brooks, James Little, Brian Nickerson, and Aaron Meyer, the team has ridden this belief to a 10-2 Ivy League record, good enough for a solo hold on first place.

These seniors, though, are not exclusively responsible for the Indians' ascendance—a fact which became evident in their very first Ivy League contest. In a rough opening weekend, Dartmouth headed south for two against Princeton followed by a pair at Cornell. Pitching in the opening league game is a burden usually shouldered by an experienced hurler, but such was not the case for Dartmouth. Instead, the Indians threw freshman righthander James Kelly at the Tigers. Kelly struck out 11 in a complete game victory.

In the afternoon showcase, senior Conor Brooks took the mound and continued Dartmouth's silencing of the Princeton bats. Behind 10 strikeouts by their staff ace, the Indian bats exploded for 16 hits, including 4 by James Little, and 13 runs. Sunday's games with Cornell were moved to Monday due to rain. With a quality outing from sophomore pitcher John Velosky and a balanced offensive output, the Indians escaped with a win in the first game. In the second contest, Dartmouth was limited offensively by a 5 hit display from Cornell sophomore Brendan McQuaid. Returning to Hanover with a 3-1 record, the team was ecstatic about its pitching and, with flashes of offensive production, knew that it would only take time for their bats to start producing consistently.

The following weekend, Dartmouth played host to Pennsylvania and Columbia.

In the opener on Saturday, our Indians once again followed freshman hurler Jim Kelly into battle. Weakened by a stomach virus, though, the young pitcher lacked some velocity on his fastball, and earned his first loss of the year in a lopsided victory for Penn.

Needing a win in the second game, Coach Bob Whalen felt more than comfortable putting the ball in the golden right hand of Conor Brooks. As is becoming routine, Brooks pitched remarkably, striking out 13 en route to his second Ivy League Pitcher of the Week award. While the Dartmouth offense was almost nonexistent in game one, James Little and Brian Nickerson lasered home runs over the left and right field fences respectively to spearhead a monstrous day. Result: a 10-2 victory and a split for the day.

After a snowy Sunday, Columbia and their homerun-hitting phenom Aswad strode onto Red Rolfe field on Monday hoping to upset the confident Braves. Led by former Dartmouth coach Mikio Aoki, the boys from New York came into the doubleheader with an air of confidence. That confidence was quickly challenged as the Columbia pitcher gave up 4 runs in the first inning. Junior Jeff Dutremble tricked the Columbia batters with impressive pace on his fastball and a nasty hook, and the result was a 10-2 victory in the first game.

In the second half of the doubleheader, sophomore John Velosky pitched valiantly and held off the surging Lions for a closely contested 6-5 victory. Once again, the Indians came out of the weekend with a 3-1 record, pushing their league mark to 6-2—just one game behind Harvard—at 7-1.

Over this past weekend, Red Rolfe division action began, with Dartmouth heading down to Providence to face the Brown Bears in a two day, four game series. Pitching would once again be at a premium, as the Bears entered the weekend with a potent offense. James Kelly continued his impressive rookie campaign, giving up only one earned run through five innings. In the top of the sixth, Brian Nickerson put Dartmouth ahead 2-1 with a two-run blast.

In the bottom, though, the as-of-yet consistent Dartmouth infield committed two errors, and the Indians went into the last frame trailing the Bears 4-2. After two walks and dramatic back-to-back RBI singles off the bats of catcher Mike Levy '01 and outfielder James Little, the game was tied. James Kelly continued strongly into the extra inning, and Dartmouth took advantage of a throwing error and some timely hitting to take the extra inning thriller by a final tally of 7-4.

Game Two saw Conor Brooks shut the Bears down, giving up no runs on only 5 hits and striking out seven in another complete game performance. The offense, which has consistently shown support for their staff ace, continued this trend with a monstrous 18-hit output, highlighted by a 4 for 5 day for freshman Jeff 'Moose' Mileusnic and the consistent output of James Little. The final score in the Saturday closer was 14-0.

On Sunday, game one was placed in the competent left hand of junior Jeffrey Dutremble of Biddeford, Maine. No stranger to bears, the Mainiac shut Brown down, giving up only one run all afternoon. The defense played solidly behind him, swallowing up the ground balls he induced, and the Indians entered the seventh with a tenuous 2-1 lead. With a runner on first and one out, Dutremble ran the count to 2-0 on the Brown batter. Coach Bob Whalen thought it was time to bring in the closer, Jon Miller '00, and did so. Only after Dutremble had returned to the dugout did the home plate umpire announce that Ivy League rules prohibited changing pitchers in the middle of an at-bat.

So the junior pitcher returned to the mound and threw one more pitch, a ground ball that quickly became a 6-4-3 double play—game over. Game two was put off until Monday as rain moved in over Aldrich-Dexter Field. Late Monday morning, the fourth and final game of the season series was played, and sophomore John Velosky improved his record to 5-1 with 7 1/3 innings of strong pitching. Offensive output was sparked by Aaron Meyer '00, Brian Nickerson '00, and John Cushman '03, and the Indians completed their sweep of Brown with a 6-3 victory.

As the boys of summer returned to the homey comforts of northern New England, they were confident, knowing that first place in the Ivy League was theirs alone. With two losses to Yale in three games, Harvard dropped to 8-3, second to Dartmouth's 10-2 mark. With two weekends remaining of Red Rolfe action, the Indians face 8 hard contests with the Elis and the Crimson. The team enters these games with the knowledge that two strong weekends could place them atop the Ivy League for the first time in a long while.

Bolstered by a strong starting rotation and timely hitting, Dartmouth looks to attain this goal, one the seniors on this team have set in each of their four seasons. The only piece of the recipe over which they have no control is the support they get from their fans, so be sure to come out and support Indian pride.

Indian Baseball: Scalping the Ivy League

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