Two of No. 18 Rowan baseball’s (23-8) seniors had walk-offs in each game of their doubleheader versus William Paterson on April 19, as an exciting senior day marked five straight wins for the Profs by final scores of 11-10 and 12-11.

It was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams all night, with each game amounted to over 20 runs of offense. The Profs also had to fight to regain the lead on multiple occasions, something head coach Mike Dickson commended his team on executing.

“We’d given up leads in both games. We were down multiple runs in that first game, and just had to find a way to persevere,” Dickson said. “You deal with adversity and you’re failing all the time in this game, and you have to be able to persevere through difficult times.”

Mike Shannon took the mound for the Profs in Game 1 looking to rebound from his disappointing last outing versus Rutgers-Camden, where he went only two innings and gave up eight runs. 

He initially looked flustered on the bump as the bases quickly became loaded with no outs, including an error by Shannon on a failed pickoff to second base. William Paterson’s Ty Kobylakiewicz would come to bat and hit a single to left, scoring the runners on second and third. Two more runs would add insult to injury as the Profs would quickly find themselves in a 4-0 deficit. However, Shannon found his groove and would end up going seven innings with eight strikeouts.

After Tyler Cannon led the bottom half of the first off with a walk, Phil Sedalis hit a homer to make things 4-2. But William Paterson’s Braden Ramirez would counter a homer of his own in the second to put the Pioneers up 6-2.

Rowan would score an additional run in the third and went into the fourth inning down three. With runners on the corners, Jason Morgan got the Profs back into things with a game-tying three run shot to right-center field to make the score even at 6-6.

“He got a breaking ball up in the zone and did a great job sticking to the game plan that we had of us being able to put good swings on pitches up in the zone,” Dickson said.

The two teams would continue to exchange blows to come to a 10-10 tie going into the bottom of the ninth. Senior Marco Mannino came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded and after getting drilled in the left shoulder by the pitch, Cannon trotted home for a walk-off hit by pitch.

“I’ll do anything for a win,” Mannino said.

Game 2 played out nearly identical to the first, with momentum swinging back and forth and getting tied up late.

Rowan would jump out to a 6-2 lead in game two, courtesy of Sedalis’ second and team-best 10th home run in the fourth. William Paterson would respond with four runs in the fifth to regain the lead 8-6. 

The Pioneers held an 11-10 lead headed into the bottom of the ninth, but an RBI single from Mannino sent the game into extra innings.

Brayden Davis and Joey Bogart hit back-to-back singles in the bottom of the tenth. Senior Karson Harcourt would follow en suite with a single of his own, this one a walk-off to score Davis to solidify the sweep of the Pioneers.

“You have to stay focused. Conference games, double headers, you know, it’s going to be a long day,” Harcourt said. “You can check out whenever you want, but you have to be dialed in and just hit that ball. I just hunted a fastball and I got and I ripped it.”

Game 2 was also a break-out outing for ace Evan Brasberger. The freshman in his longest appearance went 4.1 innings with three strikeouts to earn his first career win.

“Especially out of a freshman in a tight game like that, he very well could have folded,” Dickson said. “But it’s great poise by him to be able to buckle down and get some big outs when he needed them.”

Rowan continued to improve upon their performance in NJAC play (8-4) and celebrated their senior day with two walk-off wins by players whose seasons are slowly winding down. With their backs against the wall multiple times during the duration of the doubleheader, Harcourt says this team will always find a way to make it back out on top.

“I love these guys. We could be down 10 nothing and I still have hope in our lineup,” Harcourt said. “So when things are not going our way, you just have to battle back.”

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