No. 13 Rowan baseball quest for the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) title ended on May 9 in the pouring rain, as the Profs suffered their second loss of the double-elimination championship tournament 6-4 at the hands of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). 

The Profs were able to beat the Lions in their first game of the tournament, but weren’t able to have repeat success in their Friday night matchup. TCNJ will go on to face the undefeated Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptors in the championship game. It’s the Lions’ program’s first NJAC title game appearance since 2023.

“I just thought we weren’t staying in our zone today. I thought we got ourselves out a lot, which is something that we can’t afford to do in a game like this,” Damon Suriani said. “So moving forward, we just have to get our pitch and not miss.”

The NJAC Rookie of the Year went 2-for-3 with two runs scored against TCNJ. Suriani would tally the first run for Rowan in the bottom of the second after a single from Eric Sabato would bring him across home plate. But, the bats would go cold for Rowan as they wouldn’t score again until the seventh inning.

TCNJ would score their first run in the top of the third and Andrew Fernandez would hit a three-run homerun off Steven Maiers in the fourth to give the Lions a 4-1 lead.

“We had one tough pitch. We walked the first two guys and brought up what I consider is probably their best hitter at this moment, Fernandez,” Head coach Mike Dickson said. “I’m sure we’d like to have that pitch back to not give up a three run home run. That’s the difference in the game.” 

Maiers, making his first postseason start of the tournament, would give up another home run to Gianni Marano in the seventh. He would go six innings while striking out six to pick up the loss.

The rain picked up speed heading into the eighth inning and it seemed Rowan’s momentum looked to do the same. After scoring a run the inning prior, Suriani would score on a wild pitch and Karson Harcourt hit an RBI sacrifice fly to put the Profs down 6-4. The late game heroics wouldn’t end up being enough, as the Profs side would be retired in the ninth to end their quest for their first NJAC title since 2021.

“You have to be better in critical moments,” Dickson said. “There’s certain moments within the game when you don’t know when adversity is going to hit and you just have to be a little bit better in some of those critical moments.”

With the conference playoff season now over for the Profs, Rowan will hope to go to their seventh NCAA Division III Regionals under Dickson. For Suriani, he feels his team has what it takes to win the tournament, with their eyes set on getting a berth to the College World Series.

“I have all the belief in our team and our guys one through nine,” Suriani said. “We just have to play together and, you know, everything will work out.”

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