No. 20 ranked Rowan entered the Thursday Apr. 3 game against their New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) rival on a four game losing streak, looking to get back on track. They haven’t beaten the Stockton Ospreys since the 2023 baseball season.

It was a senior vs. senior matchup on the rubber as Zach Coluccio of Rowan faced off against Rob Jeans of Stockton. Coluccio came into this game with back to back quality starts. That kind of performance is what the Profs need as of late; in their losing streak they have allowed six-plus runs in each game.

Stockton struck first in the top of the second thanks to a solo home run from Joe Gmitter. The score would remain the same until the Profs broke it open in the bottom of the third and finally got to Jeans. Phil Sedalis tied the game with a one out solo home run.

After a couple of singles from Mannino and Davis, Nick Struble would step up to the plate with two outs.

“He [Jeans] started me out with two balls. I know Coach [Dickson] has been getting on me to get the head out a little bit, and you know, I should be pulling balls, especially with the wind blowing out,” Struble said.

Boy was he right, because he smoked a ball over the right field fence to give the Profs a 4-1 lead.

“I was thinking, see some straight in my zone, try to hit hard, and it happened to go out,” Struble said. 

That would complete the scoring for the third inning but Rowan would not lay off the gas as they scored six more unanswered runs, two in the fourth and four in the fifth. While this was all going on, Coluccio was dealing.

Coluccio finished the day going eight innings of one run baseball while striking out seven. His final stat line of the afternoon was eight innings, six hits, one earned run, no walks, and seven strikeouts. 

Controlling the strike zone was something head coach Mike Dickson liked to see out of his pitcher.

“He had really good fastball command. He was able to throw his fastball up in the zone… and then he can work the sweeper off of that, and then the slider too. He really had three different pitches working for him. So I was really impressed with what he did today,” Dickson said.

That now marks Coluccio’s third straight quality start and he improves to 3-0 on the year with a 0.93 ERA. Instead of taking time to talk about his stats, Coluccio had his mind on the next game.

“It’s good to get the next one and everyone starts 0-0 in conference, so just trying to get the ball rolling after a couple of losses and take it into the weekend,” Coluccio said.

The Profs improved to 15-6 on the season and 1-2 in NJAC play. Knowing they played the Ospreys again on Friday, head coach Mike Dickson was asked about the mental side of playing the same team in back to back days.

“They’re gonna come out and they’re gonna give us their best shot tomorrow. Obviously the day after you get beat, you’re gonna come out and you’re hungry, so it’s us to be able to weather what they give us and be able to continue to put together good AB’s, play defense, and gotta continue to pitch. That’s the name of the game,” Dickson said. 

They were supposed to play Stockton the next day before it was eventually postponed. Since this win the Profs played Montclair State and split their series one game a piece. 

The game against Stockton in Galloway is still waiting to get played; it currently has been postponed three separate times and is currently set to finally be played this Wednesday, April 9 at 3:30 p.m.

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