Yesterday we previewed the Ivy League’s Rolfe Division and today we’re doing the Gehrig Division.  We also make our predictions for overall conference winner as well as Player and Pitcher of the Year.

CLICK HERE to see the Rolfe Division Preview.

IVY LEAGUE PREVIEW-GEHRIG DIVISION

2009 Division Winners:  Dartmouth won the Rolfe & Cornell won the Gehrig Divsion

2009 Champion:  Dartmouth beat Cornell 2-1 last year in the best of two out of three Ivy Baseball Championship Series.

Ivy Fact:  Over the last five seasons five different teams have won Ivy League Baseball Crowns: Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, and Dartmouth.

Columbia

2009 Record:  (11-32, 7-13)

Mascot:  Lions

Head Coach:  Brett Boretti

Location:  New York, NY

Vitals:  .275 BA, 22 HR, .392 OBP, .960 Fld%…6.78 ERA, 5 CG, 2 SVs, 192 K, 138 BB, .315 opp. BA

Columbia head coach Brett Boretti

Stats Don’t Lie:  Columbia’s .275 team batting average ranked 8th in the Ivy League last year, while its 6.78 ERA was 6th (of eight teams).

The Hall Calls:  Head coach Brett Boretti will soon be inducted into his alma mater, Davidson’s, Athletics Hall of Fame.  He remains the only Davidson player to ever be named to the Southern Conference All-Tournament Team.  He was named All-SoCon in 1993 and ’94.  Boretti led Columbia to its first Ivy League title in 31 years in 2008.

Youth In Numbers:  17 of the 30 players on the Columbia roster are either freshmen or sophomores, while there are just three seniors.  Sophomore Jon Eisen (.331, 20 RBIs) and Jr. Bobby O’Brien (.337, 2 HR, 20 RBIs) are among six players who drove-in at least 20 runs in ’09.

Lion Losses:  Columbia loses Ron Williams, who led the team with 27 RBIs last year,  as well as pitcher Joe Scarlata, the team-leader with four wins and 10 starts.

Two-Sport Alex:  6’6 Soph. Alex Aurrichio is also a goalkeeper for the Columbina soccer team.  He hit .375 in 13 Ivy League games last year, while batting .289 overall.  He led the Lions with 4 home runs, but he had just 9 RBIs in 29 games.

Cornell

2009 Record:  (17-23, 10-10)

Mascot:  Big Red

Head Coach:  Bill Walkenbach

Location:  Ithica, NY

Vitals:  .297 HR, 38 HR, .373 OBP, .960 Fld%…5.94 ERA, 3 CG, 9 SVs, 254 K, 127 BB, .291 opp. BA

Bats Back:  Reigning Ivy League batting champ Brian Billigen (.402), returns along with a solid supporting cast including Matt Langseth (.316), Mickey Brodsky (.309, 4 HR, 37 RBIs), and Nate David (.301, 8 HR, 32 RBIs).  Brodsky (2-3, 5.59 ERA) also made 6 starts with three relief appearances on the mound.

Key Loss:  Nathan Ford was one of the top hitters in the Ivy League last year.

David Rochefort

Here’s a look at where some of his stats ranked:  .462 OBP #1, .630 Slg% #2, .370 BA #4, 9 HR T-#5.

Bullpen Delux:  Big Red closer David Rochefort is back for his senior year to lead the pitching staff.  He had a league-best 2.52 ERA with 8 saves last year.  His two wins tied seven others for a team-high.  Rochefort held opponents to a .205 batting average thanks in part to 33 strikeouts and just five walks in 25 IP.

Big Red-Big Ten:  Cornell plays Ohio State and Northwestern in March in Florida.

Penn

2009 Record:  (17-24, 5-15)

Mascot:  Quakers

Head Coach:  John Cole

Location:  Philadelphia, PA

Vitals:  .310 BA, 39 HR, .376 OBP, .949 Fld%…6.74 ERA, 5 CG, 4 SVs, 241 K, 171 BB, .326 opp. BA

Penn Packed:  The Quakers return their top seven hitters from a team that ranked first with a .310 BA,  3rd with a .376 OBP and 2nd with 298 runs scored.

Will Gordon

Tom Grandieri (.357, 5 HR, 32 RBIs), Jeremy Maas (.356, 4 HR, 27 RBIs), Dan Williams (.337, 4 HR, 42 RBIs), Derek Vigoa (.336, 4 HR, 27 RBIs), Will Gordon (.327, 10 HR, 48 RBIs), Adrian Lorenzo (.322), and James Mraz (.304).  Gordon is just the second Penn player since 1979 to hit double digit home runs in a season.

And A Packed Pen:  Penn returns 11 of 12 pitchers from last year’s team, including Grandieri and Gordon (1-1, 4.50 ERA, 2 SVs).

Princeton

2009 Record:  (18-19, 10-10)

Mascot:  Tigers

Head Coach:  Scott Bradley

Location:  Princeton, NJ

Vitals:  .277 BA, 25 HR, .356 OBP, .954 Fld%…5.08 ERA, 6 CG, 6 SVs, 266 K, 132 BB, .287 opp. BA

Wow:  Former Princeton baseball & basketball standout Will Venable is one of just two Tiger basketball players to register at least 1,000 career points, 250 assists and 150 steals.  The other is current Princeton hoops coach Sydney Johnson.  Venable is currently a San Diego Padres outfielder.

Tiger Trail:  Former Tiger pitcher David Hale was drafted by Atlanta with the 87th overall pick of last year’s draft.

Top & Bottom:  Princeton’s 5.08 team ERA was the best in the Ivy League, but it’s .277 batting average was the second worst.

Line-Up Losses:  Three players who started all 37 games for the Tigers last year are gone:  Dan DeGeorge (.349, 2 HR, 21 RBIs), Derek Beckman (.294, 10 SB)

Matt Grabowski

and Jack Murphy (.291, 4 HR, 27 RBIs).  In fact, they lose 6 of their top 9 batters from a year ago.

No Shortage Of Arms:  While the line-up will turnover, Princeton returns 10 of its 12 pitchers from 2009, including Matt Grabowski (2-1, 5 SVs) whose 2.65 ERA ranked second in the league.

Tangling With Tar Heels:  Princeton plays two games at North Carolina March 16 & 17.

2010 Gehrig Division Predictions

Gehrig Division Winner:  Penn

Top Gehrig Player:  Will Gordon-Penn

Top Pitcher:  David Rochefort-Cornell

2010 Overall Ivy League Picks

Ivy Championship Series:  Penn to beat Dartmouth

Player of the Year:  Will Gordon-Penn

Pitcher of the Year:  Kyle Hendricks-Dartmouth

IVY LEAGUE PREVIEW-ROLFE DIVISION

2009 Division Winners:  Dartmouth won the Rolfe & Cornell won the Gehrig Divsion

2009 Champion:  Dartmouth beat Cornell 2-1 last year in the best of two out of three Ivy Baseball Championship Series.

Ivy Fact:  Over the last five seasons five different teams have won Ivy League Baseball Crowns: Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, and Dartmouth.

Ivy Fact II:  The 2009 Ivy League Pitcher and Player of the Year (Nick Santomauro and Brandon Josselyn, respectively)both came from the Rolfe Division, and they have both graduated.

* Today’s preview covers the Rolfe Division, including our predictions for division winner and top player and pitcher for the division.  In tomorrow’s Gehrig Division preview we will make our picks for overall conference winner as well as Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year picks.

CLICK HERE to see the Gehrig Division Preview.

Brown

2009 Record:  (24-19-1, 15-5)

Mascot:  Bears

Head Coach:  Marek Drabinski

Location:  Providence, RI

Vitals:  .308 BA, 50 HR, .387 OBP, .971 Fld%…6.38 ERA, 7 CG, 11 SV, 237 K, 125 BB, .314 opp. BA

Tough Luck:  Brown had the second-best record in the Ivy League in 2009, they finished second in the Rolfe Division to eventual overall champion Dartmouth.

Tough Beginnings: The Bears open their season March 5-7 in Baton Rouge, LA with two games each vs. defending national champion LSU & Pepperdine.  The

Pete Greskoff

following week they play a 3-game series at traditional SEC power South Carolina.

Summer Fun: Junior Pete Greskoff was named the 2009 MVP of the Atlantic Collegiate Summer League.  He hit .397 with 10 HR and 37 RBIs for the Jersey Pilots.  Greskoff batted .339 with 11 home runs and 36 RBIs for Brown last spring.

Holes To Fill:  Brown loses Matt Nuzzo (.324, 11 HR, 45 RBIs),  Steve Daniels (.314, 8 HR, 33 RBIs, 23 SB) and Robert Pappenhouse.  Daniels was drafted by Toronto in the 24th round of last year’s MLB Draft, while Pappenhouse’s .377 average was the second-best average in the conference.

Hot Commodities:  Mark Gormley (6-2, 4.55 ERA) tossed four of Brown’s seven complete games last year, while closer Matthew Kimball (2-3, 6.23 ERA) earned 10 of his team’s 11 saves.  Both return in 2010.

Dartmouth

2009 Record:  (27-18, 16-4)

Mascot:  Big Green

Head Coach:  Bob Whalen (’09 Ivy Coach of the Year)

Location:  Hanover, NH

Vitals:  .308 BA, 44 HR, .397 OBP, .963 Fld%…6.06 ERA, 6 CG, 13 SVs, 240 K, 96

Dartmouth's Joe Sclafini

BB, .328 opp. BA

Rough Regional:  After winning the 2009 Ivy League crown Dartmouth was sent to the Chapel Hill, NC NCAA Regional.  They hung tough in a 5-2 loss to CWS bound North Carolina, but suffered elimination after a 16-0 loss to Kansas.

Armed & Dangerous:  The Big Green returns its top four pitchers from 2009: Sr. Robert Young (5-4, 4.63 ERA, 3 CG), Soph. Kyle Hendricks (6-3, 4.84 ERA, 3 CG), Sr. Ben Murray (6-1, 5.27 ERA) and Jr. Ryan Smith (2-3, 5.88 ERA, 11 SVs).

Line-Up Losses:  Dartmouth loses 3 of its top 4 batters from last year’s NCAA squad.  2009 League Player of the Year Rick Santomauro’s .372 avg. was 3rd best in the Ivy League.  They also lose Mike Pagliarulo (.340) and Ray Allen (.335, 10 HR, 44 RBIs).  Those three accounted for 24 of Dartmouth’s 44 total home runs.

Rookie No More:  Joe Sclafani (.339, 2 HR, 35 RBIs) is the ’09 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.  His 6 triples tied for the league lead.

Harvard

2009 Record:  (13-28, 10-10)

Mascot:  Crimson

Head Coach:  Joe Walsh

Location:  Boston, MA

Vitals:  .288 BA, 32 HR, .361 OBP, .957 Fld%…8.00 ERA, 4 CG, 5 SV, 211K, 135 BB, .339 opp. BA

Going Dome:  After opening its season with three games in Florida March 6 & 7 Harvard plays Minnesota, South Dakota State & Creighton at the Metrodome Tournament the following weekend.

Room To Improve:  The Crimson’s .288 team batting average ranked 5th in the Ivy League last year, while their 8.00 ERA was last.

Roster Turnover:  Of the seven players who played in at least 33 of Harvard’s 41 games last year only Tyler Albright (.267), Dillon O’Neil (.322) and Danskas Zail (.219) return.

Yale

2009 Record:  (13-24, 7-13)

Mascot:  Bulldogs

Head Coach:  John Stuper

Location:  New Haven, CT

Vitals:  .281 BA, 27 HR, .366 OBP, .964 Fld%…6.82 ERA, 5 CG, 3 SVs, 232 K, 179 BB, .291 opp. BA

Drafted Dog:  The Bulldogs lose reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Brandon Josselyn (5-3, 4.29 ERA, 4 CG) who was taken by Seattle in the 25th round of last year’s MLB Draft.

Trygg Larsson-Danforth

Locked Line-Up:  Yale returns seven of its top hitters from a year ago starting withh team triple crown winner Trygg Larsson-Danforth (.344, 7 HR, 37 RBIs, .997 OPS).  Andy Megee (.329, HR, 16 RBIs, 25 R), Zach Tobolowsky (.320, 5 HR, 18 RBIs) and Gant Elmore (.294, 5 RBIs, 23 R) each started at least 25 of Yale’s 37 games in 2009.

Pitching Problems?:   Yale’s 6.82 ERA ranked 7th of 8 teams in the conference in 2009, and they retun just one pitcher that made at least 9 starts last year.

2010 Rolfe Division Predictions

Rolfe Division Winner:  Dartmouth’s pitching gives it the slight edge over Brown

Top Rolfe Player:  Pete Greskoff-Brown

Top Rolfe Pitcher:  Kyle Hendricks-Dartmouth