For the first time since the 2021 season, Rowan baseball will find themselves playing in an NCAA Division III College World Series.

The No. 15 ranked Profs (36-10) defeated the No. 5 Lynchburg Hornets (41-9) on Saturday, May 24, in their second game of the Super Regionals, 6-2, to punch their ticket to the tournament for the first time in four years.

Rowan’s win also stops a Lynchburg program, which was crowned national champions in 2023, from advancing to the College World Series for a third straight year. Last season, the Hornets were knocked out of the tournament by Misericordia, who went on to win the 2024 title.

“We played two of our best games we’ve played all year,” head coach Mike Dickson said. “That leads us to this point and where we are now.”

Rowan has gone undefeated since their NCAA tournament journey began. This includes three wins in the Regional round, and 55 total runs of offense, along with their sweep of Lynchburg in their best-of-three Super Regionals series. The Profs also got 16 hits in their game 1 matchup with Lynchburg, the second most the Hornets have allowed all season. All of these factors, Tyler Cannon says, have been building blocks for their dominance thus far.

“We kind of got into that rhythm last weekend at regionals and carried it over into this weekend,” Cannon said. “One through nine, I trust every guy in the lineup to come through.”

The Profs offense continued like it had all postseason long by packing on the runs. Cannon drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the first inning and would come home after a double by Marco Mannino. Jason Morgan followed en-suite with an RBI triple to give the Profs a two-run lead early. RBI singles in the fourth and fifth, along with a sacrifice bunt by Damon Suriani, put the Profs up 6-0 after five innings.

Zach Coluccio also did his part on the mound. Despite Lynchburg loading the bases in the top of first, Coluccio was able to get out of the jam clean as he shut out the Hornets through the first five innings.

A leadoff home run from Joe Muntiz in the sixth, the first NCAA postseason homer of his career, would end Lynchburg’s scoreless streak. The Hornets put the pressure on Coluccio in the seventh with three back-to-back singles loading the bases with nobody out. 

The resemblance to game 1 in this moment for Dickson was uncanny. Lynchburg was able to fight back from a 4-0 deficit in game 1 to tie things up. By the third and fourth time through the order, they were able to get to Mike Shannon, despite him shutting them out for the first five innings of play. Dickson could foresee things panning out similarly with Coluccio and decided to turn to Steven Maiers, who has picked up a bullpen role since the Profs postseason run began, to salvage the situation.

“I could tell they were picking up on what he[Coluccio] was doing and I knew it was a pivotal moment in the game,” Dickson said. “You can question why I didn’t let him get out of his own mess, but it was almost this exact time yesterday when Lynchburgh started getting going, so I knew I needed another arm to get us out of it.”

And Dickson got what he asked for from Maiers, as he retired the next three batters, two of them strikeouts, to get out of the seventh with no runs allowed.

“We weren’t really able to answer,” Lynchburg head coach Travis Beazley said. “We had those opportunities early in the game and leaving the bases loaded in the seventh was huge.”

Maiers first saw action coming out of the bullpen versus Rampo during the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) tournament. He also earned his first career save during their second game of the NJAC playoffs against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).

The senior, who made nine regular season starts for Rowan, also pitched in game 1 in relief of Shannon. He says h3 feels comfortable coming into his new postseason role in the Profs game plan.

“I’m just grateful that Coach [Dickson] has the trust in me to put me back out there,” Maiers said. “I’m just trying to do what I’ve done all year, and that’s execute my pitches.”

The Profs will now travel to Eastlake, Ohio, next weekend for the NCAA Division III College World Series tournament, beginning Friday, May 29. The games will be held at Classic Park, home of the Lake County Captains, the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians.

Rowan will face a familiar foe in their first matchup on Friday, May 29, in Denison. A team that will enter Classic Park on a 19-game win streak, the Big Red handed the Profs both of their losses in the double-elimination Regional round in 2024.

But it’s a new year for both programs, and Cannon says what happened last year isn’t even on his mind. The Profs have won five straight and gone on a notable run of their own and Cannon says his team has all the confidence as they set their sights on Ohio.

“It doesn’t really matter who we play in the World Series,” Cannon said. “We just have to play our brand of baseball, trust in every guy on the team, and try to get some wins.”

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