Getting Back in Shape

Jim Croteau, Dartmouth's junior left-handed pitcher, yielded a ground single to the lead-off Harvard batter in the opening game of a doubleheader during Green Key weekend. In the second inning a Crimson hitter lashed a line drive that struck Croteau's left wrist. The force of the smash left the imprint of the ball on his wrist, but he somehow managed to hold onto the ball for the out. Few of the handful of observers at Red Rolfe Field figured that the injured Croteau would be able to continue in the game. "I couldn't feel my arm for about three minutes," concedes Croteau. The pitcher went toward the dugout and conferred with interim head coach George Landis and trainers Fred Kelley and Bob Dagenais. Croteau then returned to the mound and threw a few practice pitches. "It didn't bother me, so I stayed in the game," he says.

"That was a real shot," notes Kelley, who is sitting out a year as head baseball coach while recuperating from back sur gery. "Not too many guys would have stayed out there after being hit. Actually, he had a better curve ball after being hit than before he was hit." Croteau held Harvard hitless the rest of the way while striking out four batters to give Dartmouth a 20 victory, its first triumph over Harvard in four years.

Croteau's one-hitter was his second consecutive shutout. Earlier in the week he had blanked Springfield College, 10-0, in an away game. Croteau scattered five singles while striking out nine. He became the first Dartmouth pitcher to throw backto-back shutouts since 1973 when sophomore Kevin Kelley turned the trick.

Croteau's twin shutouts and his victory over Army in a subsequent relief appearance at West Point were the highlights in another dismal season for the Big Green baseball team. Dartmouth won only six of its first 28 games and had a record of 4-10 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League. The Green had a winning percentage of .510 in the 2,392 games it played in the previous 108 seasons. In the last three seasons Dartmouth won only 19 of 104 games, while tying one, for a percentage of .190.

Kelley and Landis blame a decimated pitching corps for this season's poor record. "George was without three pitchers he had counted on," says Kelley. Steve D'Antonio '82 suffered a severe shoulder injury that sidelined him for the entire season, Matt Stewart '83 spent the semester in Mexico to fulfill a language requirement, and Brian Hebert '83 reinjured his knee playing basketball. "With Croteau, we should have had four strong starters," says Kelley. "But when you take three front-line pitchers out, you're in trouble. It's like going on the football field without a quarterback. You can't do it with mirrors."

Landis echoes Kelley: "I feel that if we had those pitchers, we would have been a .500 team." Landis, a member of the Dartmouth football coaching staff, points out that the 1981 varsity squad was a young team. "We had sophomores and freshmen all over the field. We had a sophomore at third, a freshman at short, a freshman at second base, and a sophomore at first. Our catcher was a freshman, and in the outfield we had sophomores in left and center and a freshman in right."

The coaches see things looking up for the Dartmouth baseball program, however. "I think we've got a good future," observes Landis. "This was the first time we've beaten Army, Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Columbia in four years. Two of the three league games we lost by one run were to Yale and Navy, and they finished number one and two in the league. We're rebuilding, but the talent in rebuilding is good. Says Kelley: "I think this was the best club that Dartmouth's put on the field in years."

They are counting on Croteau to help improve Dartmouth's baseball fortunes. The lefthander won three games as a freshman but was 0-5 as a sophomore. He missed six weeks of training with an injury and was never able to work himself into pitching shape. "To go a whole year without a win is devastating for a pitcher," says Kelley. "But he made a great effort to improve himself and came back in topnotch mental shape."

Croteau was successful picking runners off base this spring, with at least one per game, but had difficulty picking up his first victory. He lost his first six games. "I was getting a little frustrated," Croteau says. "I was pitching well enough to win, but there would be a few errors or the team wouldn't be hitting. Now we seem to be getting a few more breaks, and it's paying off." Croteau picked up his first victory in the Springfield game. "It was the first time this year that my relatives and friends came out to watch me. It couldn't have come at a better time."

Croteau comes from the next-door com- munity of Chicopee, Massachusetts. At Chicopee High he pitched and played first base and received all-Western Massachusetts acclaim during his junior and senior years. He gave up hockey to play baseball in college. "I was injuryprone. I lost teeth, broke my arm, and had a hernia operation," says the 21-year-old psychology major who carries a B average and hopes to go to dental school. "This year's team is much better than the previous year's," he says. "The record doesn't show it, but it is."

If baseball manages a comeback next year,pitcher Jim Croteau will probably lead it.