At a crossroads, Rowan’s Brayden Davis chose baseball. Now, he’s helping the Profs toward history.
A knee injury ended his football playing career, but Davis has developed into one of the Profs' key hitters and a team captain.
Brayden Davis’ athletic career at Rowan has not gone as planned.
A football and baseball player at Seneca High School in Tabernacle, Burlington County, Davis arrived on Rowan’s campus in the fall of 2023 with the plan to play both sports.
But in his first college football game, a right knee injury ended his football career. Davis, then a freshman quarterback who was part of an early-season rotation, was rolling out to his left when he was tackled from behind. When he hit the turf, he fractured his patella.
“I still feel it to this day,” Davis said.
Three years later, Davis has captained the Profs (37-5) to their second consecutive trip to the Division III baseball championship at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio.
Second-seeded Rowan will face seventh-seeded Adrian (Mich.) College in the first game of a four-team double-elimination bracket on Friday (5 p.m., ncaa.com).
After falling two wins short of the title series last season, Davis and his teammates will seek to claim the school’s first baseball title since 1979 this weekend.
“We experienced the World Series last year, and we know what it takes,” said Davis, a junior third baseman who on Wednesday was named the Rawlings/American Baseball Coaches Association Division III Region IV Player of the Year. “We know what kind of baseball you have to play, and it’s the best baseball you can play, in order to win it. That’s the plan, and hopefully we bring it back home to Glassboro.”
Davis’ development
Davis planned to pitch and play third base for the Profs, but the injury he sustained in football forced him to adjust his plans. He returned in time for his freshman baseball season but didn’t play third.
“My knee was pretty banged up, and I couldn’t really do both ways, playing third and pitching,” Davis said. “So in order to help my team out, my freshman year, I thought I was better on the mound, and so did my coaches.”
Davis pitched 17 innings in relief to the tune of a 4.76 ERA with 12 walks and 15 strikeouts. He also went 2-for-16 (.125) at the plate.
As his first season with the Profs unfolded, Davis also had to decide if he wanted to return to the gridiron in the fall. Davis determined that he wanted to give baseball his full attention and abandoned his two-sport ambitions.
“In high school, it’s a lot easier because you’re not playing at as high a level as you are in college,” Davis said. “I was ready for it, but I didn’t know truly what I was getting myself into, and I had noticed that in order to be the best, you’ve got to play one sport … I talked to my parents. I knew it was right for me, and I wanted to give my all to this team. In order to do that, I [needed to] just focus on baseball, so I ended up hanging up the football cleats.”
» READ MORE: Pitcher Emily McCutcheon anchors Rowan softball’s Division III championship chase
Once he committed himself to baseball, opportunities started to appear. Starting third baseman Anthony Schooley graduated in 2024, and Davis earned the chance to start there for 2025. Davis hit .309, including 11 doubles and eight home runs, as a sophomore.
After an offseason of work at the position, Davis bloomed as the engine of the Profs’ offense in 2026. He was the New Jersey Athletic Conference Player of the Year after slashing .411/.469/.783 with 15 homers and 84 RBIs in just 41 games. Davis even found himself on the mound again, throwing his lone inning of the year in the Profs’ 13-8 win over Southern Maine in the NCAA Regionals.
Rowan coach Mike Dickson said Davis’ development at the plate comes from improved discipline, especially late in the count.
“He had a good year last year, but he would get himself out on the pitcher’s pitch,” Dickson said. “The key to his success is just being more disciplined. It seems easy to say, but it’s really difficult, to hit strikes and take balls. … The good [players] can really limit balls out of the zone and stay with the pitches that they like in the zone. He’s been able to do that this year.”
Rowan returns
While Rowan returned just three everyday starters and five pitchers from the roster it took to last year’s championship, it’s still carrying some valuable lessons from last year’s tournament.
And while many of those lessons will be applied to what happens on the diamond, one is purely logistical.
The Profs began their roughly eight-hour bus ride to Eastlake, Ohio, a day earlier than they did last year. Instead of arriving late Wednesday night, the team departed Glassboro on Tuesday and stopped overnight near State College, Pa.
They practiced near Penn State on Wednesday and arrived in the outskirts of Cleveland by midafternoon, giving themselves more time to acclimate to the championship environment.
Dickson said that change is one of the many ways the Profs hope to use their experience to their advantage. Dickson is making his third trip to the championship since he became coach in 2015.
“Little things like that, I think, help out,” Dickson said. “Having some of the players back and the coaching staff back, it definitely helps with some of the organizational things.”
» READ MORE: Jimmy Rollins to manage in the HBCU Swingman Classic
Falling short of last season’s final series creates some extra motivation for the players, especially the returnees. Regardless, Davis said his approach to the final weekend does not change from any other series.
“At the end of the day, we’re playing baseball,” Davis said. “It’s a kid’s game, you’ve got to bring the kid to the ballpark, as our coach always says. … You worry about winning the game that’s right in front of you and staying in the moment and enjoying the moment.
“Eight times 30, that’s how many players get to experience it, in the whole world. You’ve got to enjoy the moments with your teammates, with your coaches, with your friends, and just go out there and play baseball.”