Here’s how Rowan’s baseball and softball teams have taken two different paths to success

Rowan’s baseball and softball teams have taken very different paths, but they’ve still amounted to victories.

In the baseball team’s case, the Profs outscored opponents, 55-14, in three games at the Mount Union Regional in the NCAA Division III championship. The Profs (34-10) have punched their ticket to the super regionals behind a 20-4 win over Catholic University — fueled by three home runs from Phil Sedalis.

Rowan has scored at least 10 runs in more than half its games and is 22-2 when reaching double digits.

In softball, Rowan relies on defense. The Profs (46-2) have recorded a Division III-best 27 shutouts, including two in three games as hosts of the Glassboro Regional. Both regional shutouts were hurled by Emily McCutcheon, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the regional. The second shutout, a 2-0 victory over SUNY Cortland, sent Rowan to a super regional for the third straight season.

Now, both are faced with the same task: Win two games out of three in the super regional to advance. The softball team’s quest begins against Salisbury (36-6-1) at home on Thursday (2 p.m., NCAA.com). Game 2 and Game 3, if needed, are scheduled for Friday, with Game 2 beginning at 1 p.m.

The baseball team will travel to Virginia for a super regional series against Lynchburg (41-7). The first game of the series will start at noon Friday. Game 2 (11 a.m.) and, if necessary, Game 3 (2 p.m.) are Saturday.

If the softball team advances, it will play in the Division III finals, which start May 29 in Bloomington, Ill. If the baseball team moves on, it will travel to Eastlake, Ohio, for the Division III finals, which begin May 30.

Rowan softball already played itself into the university’s record books. The Profs started their season on a 31-game winning streak, the longest in program history. Their 46 wins this season also are a program record.

“They have a quiet, calm confidence to them,” coach Kim Wilson said. “They know they can score enough runs; they know that we’re going to get good pitching and that we play really good defense.”

Wilson picked up her 1,000th career win as a head coach this season. In 2023, she was inducted into the Softball Coaching Hall of Fame.

However, in 29 seasons as the head coach at Rowan, Wilson has not won a national title. The Profs fell one win short — following a loss to eventual champion East Texas Baptist — of a berth in the three-game championship series of the NCAA Tournament.

As the Profs get closer to a return to the NCAA finals, Wilson expects her team’s postseason experience to be useful, especially for McCutcheon and fellow pitcher Rylee Lutz.

“Emily threw as a freshman in the World Series; Rylee threw [her] sophomore [and] junior year,” Wilson said. “They’ve competed at the highest level and had success, and they understand what it feels like to fail, also. They just look at it one inning, one pitch at a time.”

Rowan’s pitching staff has an earned run average of 0.99, the best in D-III. McCutcheon (0.80) and Lutz (0.91) have the fourth- and seventh-best individual ERA marks nationally.

“Their reliability is pretty unique in a coach’s life,” Wilson said.

With the lefty McCutcheon and the righty Lutz both dominating the circle, Rowan has an opportunity to win its first title in program history.

“We have the offense that can provide enough runs and the defense that is going to hold another team to a score that we can attain,” Wilson said. “We’ve shown it throughout the season.”

In 11 seasons as the head coach of Rowan’s baseball team, Mike Dickson has guided the Profs to eight straight NCAA Tournament berths. Under his tutelage, the Profs made it to the 2021 Division III College World Series and made super regional appearances in 2022 and 2023.

Most of the Profs are hunting for their first College World Series appearance, with the exception of Mike Shannon, a fifth-year right-handed pitcher who was a sophomore on the 2021 team. Still, the experience that consecutive super regional appearances has cultivated should be an advantage for Rowan.

“Experience, in these scenarios, is everything,” Dickson said. “That definitely helps you stay relaxed in bigger games, bigger situations. You’ve been in those situations before, so the moment shouldn’t be too big for you.”

The Profs’ success this season can be attributed to their offense. Rowan ranks second in Division III in runs per game (10.6) and fourth in team batting average (.346). The team also ranks sixth in on-base percentage (.449). Dickson said the team’s offensive strategy changed early in the season to place more emphasis on putting the ball in play.

The player who has benefited most from teammates getting on base is Sedalis. The senior outfielder leads Rowan with 70 RBIs this season. Sedalis was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Mount Union Regional after hitting 9-for-16 with 14 RBIs and four home runs in three games.

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If Sedalis and the Profs can continue to hit well in the super regional, they could get one step closer to the program’s first national championship since its back-to-back titles in 1978 and 1979.

“When you get into regionals, super regionals, and World Series, I think the best players on your team have to be the best players on the field,” Dickson said. “If you do that, you’re probably going to be successful. If you don’t, you’re probably going to struggle.”

It is not out of the ordinary for Rowan’s softball and baseball teams to both be playing deep into May. Excluding the canceled 2020 postseason, the softball team has made nine of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments, while the baseball team has made eight NCAA Tournament appearances, all consecutive.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve probably been two of the best programs at Rowan,” Dickson said. “For us to continue to play in May, and hopefully into June, it just shows what a tremendous job the softball team has done and what a tremendous job our players have done as well.”

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For Wilson, it seems like there’s more postseason success at Rowan than usual this season. In addition to the baseball team‘s success, the women’s lacrosse team made it to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, and the men’s track and field team is ranked sixth in Division III. The Profs men’s and women’s teams will send 27 athletes to the Division III outdoor track and field championships this weekend.

“The last two years, we’ve been here by ourselves,” Wilson said. “It’s neat to have another team around. Last week, we had lacrosse here, and track and field has been here. … We’re a family at the end of the day. They support us, and we support them.”