It was worth the wait for No. 13 Rowan baseball, as they defeated The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Lions in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) semifinals on May 4 by a final score of 12-7. The Profs remain undefeated in the double-elimination style tournament and have now won 13 straight.

The game was initially supposed to take place on May 3, but was pushed back due to the weather. Head coach Mike Dickson says his team wasn’t affected by the waiting game.

“There’s a lot of starts and stops and you get rain outs, and you just have to deal with the adversity or whatever is thrown at you,” Dickson said. “In our game we fail enough that you learn to deal with some things.”

The Profs were able to get to TCNJ’s ace Jordan Gray early, as Tyler Cannon got things started with a leadoff triple. Phil Sedalis would hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring Cannon home. Another sacrifice fly by Brayden Davis scored Marco Mannino to tally a two run first inning for Rowan.

TCNJ would get two runs after the first two innings, but the Profs would score three more runs in the third to put them up 6-2.

Veteran Mike Shannon took the mound for Rowan and is no stranger to postseason baseball. The fifth-year ace went seven innings during his start in the NJAC championship game against Ramapo last year. But, the reigning NJAC Pitcher of the Year has been shaky since his regular-season outing versus Rutgers-Camden on April 16, and the inconsistencies as of late plagued him in his start against the Lions.

He struggled to find command of his off-speed pitches and TCNJ was able to capitalize. Andrew Fernandez hit a leadoff home run to begin the fourth and his teammates would follow en suite, scoring three more runs to tie things at 6-6. Fernandez went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Shannon would be pulled from the game with one out that inning, allowing six runs on just five hits.

Rowan’s go-to reliever Christian Rice finished the inning strong. He made 13 appearances during the regular season with his last on April 24 against Rutgers-Newark. Rice ended the inning with back-to-back strikeouts to keep things tied and went on to pitch two more innings and capture his first win as a Prof.

Eric Sabato’s first hit since March would come in the fifth as a single down the left field line and a sacrifice bunt by Karson Harcourt two batters later would score Sabato and give Rowan a one run advantage. TCNJ would get a run in the bottom of the inning to make things 7-7.

Steven Maiers would get his first career save in relief of Rice as the hot-bat of Fernanzdez came to the plate once again. He was a regular guy in the starting rotation during the Prof’s regular season and Dickson looked to put Fernandez away when the game was still tight. Maiers would go 3.1 innings and hold the Lions to just two hits and allow no runs.

“Fernandez was coming up and he had homered and doubled already in the game. I wanted to go to one of my best guys,” Dickson said. “And he shot it down for us. We were in a position in the game at that point where we needed to be able to get some shutdown innings.”

Brayden Davis would break the tie for good with a 2 RBI home run to put the Profs up 9-7 in the sixth. After scoring another run that inning, Mannino would put things out of reach with a 2 RBI double in the ninth to total the Profs 12 runs in the afternoon.

“When you step up in those big moments, it puts teams away,” Mannino said. “It gets energy on your side and those are some big swings out of the guys today.” 

Davis, a first-time starter at third this season, went yard for the first time since March. It was also the sophomore’s first home run in a postseason game.

“I just wanted to get on base for the guys and pass it to the next guy,” Davis said. “But I got all of it [the ball] and it felt good.”

Rowan will now face the undefeated Rutgers-Camden, who have gone on a Cinderella-style run in this year’s NJAC tournament despite going 8-10 in regular season conference play. The Scarlet Raptors scored six runs in the top of the ninth to beat the No. 1 seeded Kean Cougars in their first game and defeated Montclair State in extra innings after being down 8-1 earlier in that game.

The weather relocated the rest of the tournament to campus sites, meaning the Profs will face Rutgers-Camden later in the week on the Scarlet Raptors home turf. Despite the red-hot run their future opponent has gone on, Davis notes Rowan has built up their momentum to go on a notable streak of their own.

“If I’m being honest, we’re locked in as ever right now,” Davis said. “We’re on a 13 game win streak and you can’t really ice, ice.”

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