Making their eight straight appearance and 31st overall in program history, No. 15 Rowan baseball (32-10) travelled to Alliance, Ohio, on Friday, May 16, for the NCAA Division III Regionals. In their first game of the double-elimination style tournament hosted at Mount Union University, Rowan defeated the Grove City Wolverines (31-12) 9-1 to advance in the winners bracket.

The win comes after the Profs failed to capture their respective New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) title after losing their last two games. Their first was at the hands of future NJAC winners Rutgers-Camden and the second to The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). 

“The NJAC is one of the toughest conferences in the country year in and year out. When you’re playing the same teams multiple times a year it’s hard to beat them every time,” Head coach Mike Dickson said. “They’re all learning moments and we made some adjustments today and as tough as those losses are, you get better from them.”

Rowan’s win on Friday over Grove City got them back in the win column. It also stopped a historic run by the Wolverines, who won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) title for the first time since 2008 before suffering their first loss of the tournament to the Profs.

Dickson praised the Wolverines for their performance this season. He also shouted out two regional tournament veterans of his own: Tyler Cannon and Mike Shannon.

“First of all, I want to congratulate Grove City. They did an excellent job and they’re an outstanding team. We were able to get to them early in that first and expand,” Dickson said. “Ty [Tyler Cannon] did an amazing job as a leader on offense and Mike [Shannon] gave us everything he had. Both of these guys have been in this situation before.”

Leadoff man Cannon went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs in his fourth-straight NCAA regionals appearance as a Prof. He would also account for Rowan’s first run in the bottom of the first, as a sacrifice bunt by Marco Mannino would bring him home to score.

“I trust all the guys behind me and in that leadoff sport. I just want to spark the offense and get us rolling,” Cannon said. “I just want to go out there and get him [Mike Shannon] into his groove and put us in a winning position.”

Shannon, who has been to the regionals every year of his five-year Rowan career, snapped his two-game losing streak on the mound versus the Cardinals. He went eight innings and held the Wolverines to just five hits. Shannon also dished out nine strikeouts, his second-highest strikeout margin this season as his teammates backed him up at the plate with nine runs of offense.

Rowan went on to score two more runs in the first inning, with an RBI double from Cannon adding another run in the second. The Profs would tally two runs in the fourth and three in the sixth for their nine total runs. 

Grove City wouldn’t get their sole run of the game until the seventh inning. Outfielder Andrew Seest would reach first after a throwing error by Mannino and advance to second. Freshman Braeden Coyle would pinch run for Seest and would come home on an RBI single by Sam Bevin to left field.

Shannon knew his team would pack on the runs, as they have proven their offensive capabilities throughout the regular season. Rowan leads the NJAC in batting average at .338, and Shannon knew all he had to do was keep the Wolverines in check and let his offense get to work.

“My thought process headed into this game was getting the shutdown in the first because I know what this [Rowan] offense is capable of,” Shannon said. “Just giving them a clean slate to work with and I try my best to keep getting shutdowns. They scored nine runs like it’s nothing and I expect that from them.”

The veteran ace still found himself in some tight jams throughout the game despite his dominance on the bump. One instance occurred in the top of the third inning. Shannon would strike out back-to-back batters with runners on first and second before outfielder Josh Minnich would draw a walk. With the bases loaded and two outs, Shannon was able to jam shortstop Sam Meredith into a fly out to right field and get out of the inning with no runs allowed.

“Their guy Shannon was really, really good around the strike and controlling all of his pitches,” Grove City head coach Matt Royer said. “What was really impressive is that we had a couple of innings where we had the bases loaded and he went out and got even better and that’s the sign of a really great pitcher.”

Rowan now goes on to play the Catholic Cardinals in the semifinals of the regional tournament on Saturday, May 17. With one win under their belt, Shannon emphasizes the importance of what their next game means for the overall trajectory of their tournament run.

“When you’re playing the first game, that’s the most important game, but game 2 is really the most important,” Shannon said. “We did what we had to do today and we’ll try our best to do that tomorrow.”

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