Santomauro is coming off of a freshman campaign in which he led the team with his .395 batting average, 49 hits, and 23 RBIs.
The Wallace award is given each season to the nation's most outstanding baseball player. Santomauro is one of five Ivy League players on the watch list.
The award is given in memory of Brooks Wallace, a four-year starter at Texas Tech University between 1977 and 1980. Wallace led the Red Raiders to their first appearance in the Southwest Conference Tournament, now the Big 12. After playing professional baseball within the Texas Rangers' system, he returned to Texas Tech to serve as a graduate assistant and as an assistant coach.
Soon after, Wallace was diagnosed with cancer and died at age 27.
The memorial award considers a player's athletic entire season, which includes the post-season. This makes it difficult for a player from the Ivy League to win the award, as there is only one Ivy League slot in the postseason tournament.
In addition, the winner of the Ivy League is often matched up against a powerhouse team from a major conference in the regional playoff game, which makes it hard for Ivy League players to advance and play deep into the postseason and subsequently gain exposure for the award.
After learning that he was on the watch list, Santomauro said that he experienced mixed emotions. While Santomauro was thrilled that he was praised for his individual accomplishments, he maintains that he would have preferred to have been recognized alongside his teammates.
"I was excited," Santomauro said. "My mind ranged from excitement all the way to feeling added pressure. It doesn't really matter though, because I would rather have had us be put on a list as a team to watch out for."
Santomauro credits the Big Green coaching staff and his teammates, specifically the experienced upperclassmen, with assisting him in the difficult transition from his high school baseball program to the added pressures of college play.
"I couldn't have done anything last year without my teammates," Santomauro said. "They're always there for me, helping me out, and all of the older guys helped me adjust to the higher level of Division I baseball."
The performance of Santomauro will play a leading role in the fortunes of the Dartmouth baseball team this upcoming season. However, it will take a full team effort for the Big Green to reverse last season's disappointments.
While Santomauro recognizes that teams may be inclined to pitch around him because of his performance during freshman year, he feels that the players around him in the lineup would punish the other team if that were to happen.
"There's a ton of guys in the lineup that should be feared," Santomauro said. "There are guys in front of me and behind me that can do massive damage and hurt [opposing teams], so pitching around me would be pointless."
Individually, Santomauro does not have a specific on-base percentage or any other quantitative goal that he has set as a target. Instead, he hopes to improve on his already gaudy stats from his first year in Hanover.
"I set goals, but they're not quantitative goals," Santomauro said. "I want to get better. It's not about reaching a certain number, but a certain level. I definitely want to cut down on the strikeouts because I led the team [in strikeouts]. I want to halve all of the negatives, double all of the positives and call it a season."
This spring the Big Green will look to improve on last year's final record of 8-29-1, 5-15-0 Ivy. Dartmouth open up its 2008 season on Saturday, March 1 against the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., before traveling to Florida for its annual spring trip.
