Rowan baseball’s season came to a close on Monday, June 2, as the Profs fell to Wisconsin-Whitewater 17-4 for their second and eliminating loss of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. The win for the Warhawks moves them onto the finals, where they will face Messiah in a best-of-three series.

“Credit to them [Wisconsin-Whitewater], they’re a good club,” Head coach Mike Dickson said. “I’m proud of my players. Out of 400 some Division III team’s, we ended up as one of the last four in the country. Obviously it’s not the end goal, but these last four weeks I’ll some they’ll remember some of the greatest times of their life.”

Wisconsin-Whitewater was undefeated coming into this matchup, meaning Rowan would’ve needed to beat them twice to advance in the tournament. 

This matchup wasn’t as one-sided to start out as the score implies. Both teams were going band for band to start this contest, with Wisconsin-Whitewater striking first with one run in the second. Rowan and Wisconsin-Whitewater continued to exchange blows with the Profs leading 3-2 headed into the fifth.

Steven Maiers got the start and looked to force a potential game 2 in Rowan’s meeting with the Warhawks. Maiers has been used as a high leverage reliever for the Profs this postseason and his start marked his first since game 2 of the Mount Union Regional. 

He allowed four runs before being pulled in the fifth inning after loading the bases with no outs. Mark Grubb would come in and give up one more run to give Wisconsin-Whitewater a 5-3 lead.

The Profs would answer in the top of the sixth as Brayden Davis sent a sacrifice fly to left field to bring Rowan within one run. 

Sean Colbert replaced Grubb on the mound in the bottom of the sixth with runners on first and second. Colbert, making his first appearance in relief since April 27, didn’t allow the Warhawks to score to keep the score 5-4 with Rowan in a one run deficit headed into the seventh.

The score was close enough to give Rowan the chance for a potential comeback. But Maiers early exit turned the trajectory towards a bullpen game for the Profs. Their relievers had been the Achilles heel at times for them during the regular season and would also turn out to be their undoing in the College World Series.

“First five [innings] we were right there, we just ran out of arms,” Dickson said.

Back-to-back wild pitches from Christian Rice scored two Wisconsin-Whitewater baserunners in the seventh as things began to unravel. Rice, who was Rowan’s go-to reliever in the regular season, gave up two more runs to give the Warhawks a 9-4 lead.

Things only got worse for Rowan in the eighth as Wisconsin-Whitewater exploded for 12 runs. It took three arms out of the Profs bullpen to get a single out as Charlie Russell came in and retired three straight batters to end the inning with the Warhawks now leading 17-4.

Damon Suriani, who was redshirted his first year at Barton College, transferred to Rowan in 2025. He was awarded New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) and Region 4 Rookie of the year after hitting .571. Despite the loss, Suriani says his first year as a Prof, and playing collegiate baseball, couldn’t have gone any better.

“I came here to win, and we did a lot of that this year,” Damon Suriani said. “We just came up a little short this year but I had a great time and I’m looking forward to what the next three years has to come.”

Rowan baseball will not bring home a national championship, but their 2025 season was full of historical moments.

The program got a new all-time hits leader in Tyler Cannon and Phil Sedalis became the leader in triples. Sedalis, along with Jason Morgan, also notched 200 hits in their career in 2025.  Cannon, Sedalis, and Morgan are just three of the multiple seniors on this year’s Profs team.

Another senior in Marco Mannino, who has spent four years in the brown and gold, can’t say enough positive things about his time at Rowan.

“I really don’t know where to begin,” Mannino said. “I came here as a skinny freshman and didn’t know where I was going to fit. All the coaches instilled confidence in us and worked with us everyday. It’s truly a blessing to be a part of this program.”

Dickson, who got his 300th win this season as head coach this season, is grateful for what each have contributed to the program.

“These guys have so many memories they’ve made, whether it’s been a year of four years,” Dickson said. “I’m proud of the seniors and where they left us and looking forward to where it takes us in the future.”

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