PRINCETON, N.J. -- After a vote by the eight Ivy League baseball head coaches, Penn and Princeton split the four major postseason awards.
Penn junior Tim Graul (East Greenwich, R.I.) was a unanimous vote for Player of the Year, while his fellow catcher/DH freshman Matt O’Neill (Morristown, N.J.) was selected Rookie of the Year.
The 2016 Ivy League champion Tigers junior righty Chad Powers (La Cañada, Calif.) was a unanimous selection for Pitcher of the Year, while his head coach Scott Bradley was unanimously voted Coach of the Year.
Graul led the League in batting average in Ivy play to earn the annual Blair Bat Award, the first Quaker to do so since Tom Grandieri in 2010. Graul batted .432 (32-for-74), with 17 runs, 10 doubles, six home runs and 17 RBI. He slugged .811 in conference action, walked 13 times and recorded an on-base percentage of .517. Overall, Graul led the League in hits (59), doubles (21), home runs (8) and RBI (35). He leads the nation in doubles per game and ranks 10th in doubles overall. Graul is first unanimous Player of the Year since Dartmouth’s Nick Santomauro in 2009, and the fifth-ever Quaker to receive the award. Graul also earned his first two career All-Ivy honors, receiving first team as a DH and second team as a catcher.
Powers was the best pitcher in the League in conference play, going 3-1 in five starts with a 0.47 ERA. He pitched 38.0 innings, striking out 21 and limiting batters to .158 at the plate, leading the League in ERA, innings pitched and opposing batting average. Overall, Powers is 6-3 on the year with a 2.07 ERA and 37 strikeouts. He is the fourth Tiger to be named Pitcher of the Year and the third in the past five years, joining Zak Hermans (2012) and Mike Ford (2013). Powers is the first-ever Tiger to be a unanimous choice for Pitcher of the Year. He is the fifth Ivy to accomplish the feat and the first since Columbia’s David Speer in 2014. He also was unanimously selected to the All-Ivy first team, his first career All-Ivy honor.
O’Neill is the second Quaker to be named Rookie of the Year, joining Todd Roth (2007). It marks the first time in Penn program history that two players received postseason awards in the same year. O’Neill batted .353 in League play (24-fo4-68), with 15 runs, six doubles, one triple and three home runs. He led the conference in slugging percentage in Ivy play (.603) and walked eight times for an on-base percentage of .429. O’Neill also earned two All-Ivy accolades, receiving honorable mention as both a catcher and a DH.
Bradley takes home Coach of the Year, the first to do so as a unanimous selection after the award was implemented prior to the 2015 campaign. Bradley guided the Tigers to the Gehrig Division title with a 13-7 mark, and then the Ivy League title after winning the championship series in three games over Yale. It marks Princeton's 17th Ivy championship and first since 2011.
FIRST-TEAM ALL-IVY
Princeton led the way with five first-team recipients, as senior third baseman Bill Arendt (Houston), senior second baseman Danny Hoy (Sellersville, Pa.), junior first baseman Zak Belski (Missouri City, Texas) and freshman outfielder Jesper Horsted (Roseville, Minn.) joined Powers. Hoy takes home his second-straight first team accolade, while Arendt earns his second All-Ivy honor and first as a member of the first team, moving up from Honorable Mention last year. Belski is named All-Ivy for the second time and first since receiving honorable mention in 2014, while Horsted becomes the first freshman outfielder to be named to the first team since Columbia’s Dario Pizzano in 2010.
A trio of Dartmouth Big Green received first team honors in senior pitcher Duncan Robinson (Houston), senior shortstop Thomas Roulis (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) and sophomore reliever Patrick Peterson (Glen Ellyn, Ill.). Robinson, the 2015 Pitcher of the Year, led the League with 73 strikeouts overall and 36 in Ivy play en route to his third-straight first team accolade, the 23rd Ivy to be named first team three times, the seventh from Dartmouth and first since Nick Santomauro (2007-08-09). Roulis earns his second All-Ivy and first since receiving honorable mention in 2014, while Peterson is named to the first team for the second-straight season.
Brown, Columbia, Penn and each placed two on the first team. Brown sophomore reliever Dante Bosnic (Lutz, Fla.) and junior catcher Josh Huntley (Aurora, Colo.) became the first Bears teammates to be named first team in the same season since five were so named in 2010.
Lions senior outfielder Robb Paller (Brooklyn, N.Y.) takes home his second career All-Ivy and first since being named second team in 2013, while sophomore utility player Randell Kanemaru (Santa Ana, Calif.), the 2015 Rookie of the Year, takes home his second All-Ivy honor and first as a member of the first team.
For Penn, senior outfielder Gary Tesch (Cypress, Texas) joined Graul on the first team for his first career All-Ivy accolade, while Yale was represented on the first team by freshman starter Scott Politz (Austin, Texas), who went 6-3 in his rookie year with 48 strikeouts and a 3.64 ERA.
Cornell senior reliever Michael Byrne (Vienna, Va.) and Harvard junior starter Nick Gruener (Miami) led the Big Red and Crimson, respectively, with second team honors.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Tim Graul, Penn (Jr., C/DH – East Greenwich, R.I.)
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
*Chad Powers, Princeton (Jr., SP – La Cañada, Calif.)
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Matt O’Neill, Penn (Fr., C/DH – Morristown, N.J.)
COACH OF THE YEAR
*Scott Bradley, Princeton
FIRST-TEAM ALL-IVY^
Scott Politz, Yale (Fr., SP – Austin, Texas)
*Chad Powers, Princeton (Jr., SP – La Cañada, Calif.)
Duncan Robinson, Dartmouth (Sr., SP – Houston)
Dante Bosnic, Brown (So., RP – Lutz, Fla.)
Patrick Peterson, Dartmouth (So., RP – Glen Ellyn, Ill.)
Josh Huntley, Brown (Jr., C – Aurora, Colo.)
Zak Belski, Princeton (Jr., 1B – Missouri City, Texas)
Danny Hoy, Princeton (Sr., 2B – Sellersville, Pa.)
Thomas Roulis, Dartmouth (Sr., SS – New Hyde Park, N.Y.)
Bill Arendt, Princeton (Sr., 3B – Houston)
Jesper Horsted, Princeton (Fr., OF – Roseville, Minn.)
Robb Paller, Columbia (Sr., OF – Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Gary Tesch, Penn (Sr., OF – Cypress, Texas)
Randell Kanemaru, Columbia (So., UTIL – Santa Ana, Calif.)
Tim Graul, Penn (Jr., DH – East Greenwich, R.I.)
SECOND-TEAM ALL-IVY^
Nick Gruener, Harvard (Jr., SP – Miami)
Gabe Kleiman, Penn (Jr., SP – New York)
Keelan Smithers, Princeton (Jr., SP – Framingham, Mass.)
Christian Taugner, Brown (Jr., SP – Roselle, Ill.)
Michael Byrne, Cornell (Sr., RP – Vienna, Va.)
Harrisen Egly, Columbia (So., RP – Edina, Minn.)
Tim Graul, Penn (Jr., C – East Greenwich, R.I.)
Nick Maguire, Columbia (Sr., 1B – Chester, N.J.)
Will Savage, Columbia (Jr., 2B – Bronx, N.Y.)
Ryan Mincher, Penn (Sr., SS – Glenshaw, Pa.)
Richard Slenker, Yale (Jr., 3B – Pound Ridge, N.Y.)
Jake Levine, Brown (Sr., OF – Newton, Mass.)
Nate Adams, Yale (Sr., OF – St. Louis)
Rob Emery, Dartmouth (Fr., UTIL – San Francisco)
Nick Hernandez, Princeton (Jr., OF – Miami)
Harrison White, Yale (Jr., DH – Laguna Niguel, Calif.)
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Mike Reitcheck, Penn (Jr., SP – Crystal Lake, Ill.)
Josh Ellis, Harvard (Jr., C – Milton, Mass.)
Andrew Herrera, Yale (Jr., C – Allendale, N.J.)
Matt O’Neill, Penn (Fr., C – Morristown, N.J.)
Michael Ketchmark, Dartmouth (Jr., 1B – Dallas)
Cole Rutherford, Cornell (Jr., 1B – Simi Valley, Calif.)
Dustin Shirley, Dartmouth (So., 2B – Los Angeles)
John Fallon, Harvard (So., 3B – Houston)
Tim DeGraw, Yale (Fr., OF – Rye, N.Y.)
Nick Ruppert, Dartmouth (Sr., OF – La Mesa, Calif.)
Dale Wickham, Cornell (So., OF – Victor, N.Y.)
CJ Price, Cornell (Jr., UTIL – Naples, Fla.)
Matt Rothenberg, Harvard (So., DH – Boca Raton, Fla.)
Matt O’Neill, Penn (Fr., DH – Morristown, N.J.)
*Unanimous selection
^First and second teams expanded due to ties in the voting