Rowan baseball drops opening game vs. Adrian in Division III championship, faces elimination on Saturday
Rowan held a 1-0 lead through five innings, but Adrian scored eight runs in the sixth and never looked back.
Seventh-seeded Adrian upset No. 2 seed Rowan, 10-1, on Friday evening in the NCAA Division III baseball championship at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio.
Rowan will face No. 3 seed Salisbury, which lost to Endicott late Friday night, on Saturday (5 p.m., ncaa.com). The Profs need a win Saturday to keep themselves alive in the double-elimination tournament.
“Coming out of the loser’s bracket is tough,” Rowan coach Mike Dickson said. “We’re going to find out what we’re made of tomorrow. It’s either win or go home from here on out. … It’s up to all of us, what we’re made of. I guess we’ll find out in the next couple days.”
Rowan (37-6) held a 1-0 lead through five innings, but Adrian, which is based in Michigan, scored eight runs in the sixth.
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Adrian’s avalanche started with a grand slam from Gabe Jones. Thirteen Bulldogs came to the plate as they scored four more runs.
Dickson pulled his starting pitcher, Zach Coluccio, after he faced his 11th batter of the inning.
Coluccio allowed seven hits and eight runs (five earned) while striking out four in 5⅔ innings.
Ben Schild got the Profs out of the sixth without Adrian (38-12) inflicting further damage, but the deficit proved too steep. Jake Burns extended Adrian’s lead to 9-1 with an RBI single in the seventh, and Aiden Melvin added a final insurance run with another RBI single in the ninth.
Brayden Davis drove in the Profs’ only run of the day with a sacrifice fly in the third inning. Mason Dorsey scored to give Davis his 85th RBI of the season, extending his lead on the school’s single-season record.
But Davis’ continued success at the plate was overshadowed by a costly two-out fielding error that extended the sixth inning and preceded three unearned runs.
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“We haven’t lost very much this year,” Davis said. “We do a good job responding after a loss, so I’m looking forward to bringing it tomorrow. Good baseball players flush the bad day and move on to the next day, and that’s what we plan on doing.”
Rowan recorded nine hits and left nine runners on base against Adrian. The loss snaps a 14-game winning streak for the Profs that dated to April 18.