HOME COOKING FOR ROWAN BASEBALL- By Jacob Keppen
Home Cooking For Rowan Baseball
By Jacob Keppen – Sports Writer for Sentinel of Gloucester County Newspaper- published on line 3/31 – print edition week of 4/4/2019
There’s no place like home and boy has it been sweet to the Rowan Baseball team so far this season. After starting their season with a long road trip, including a nine game stretch in Florida, Rowan finally had their first home stand of the season, a successful stretch that saw the Profs begin conference play.Rowan’s first defense of home ground was an 11-2 pounding of Haverford College. Jeremy Dyzenhaus earned his first victory of the season. Rowan went ahead first, an Anthony Harrold RBI single putting the Profs up by 1 after the first inning. Though Haverford would tie it back up in the second, the stalemate would not last long, with a seven run onslaught in the second inning putting Rowan back up 8-1. Haverford would gain one more run back in the fourth.Rowan would continue their momentum with a tough fought 2-0 victory over Neumann. Justin Smith earned the win, looking near unstoppable on the mound giving up only four hits. He struck out eleven batters in nine shutout innings. The pitching duel was broken in the fourth inning with an Eric Schorr RBI. A Nick Schooley RBI single in the fifth would give the Profs the 2-0 lead that they would defend the rest of the way.The hits did not stop coming in the Profs next game against Immaculata, with the Profs dominating the Macs to the tune of an 11-1 victory. Jean Sapini earned his second victory of the season. Rowan dominated this game early and did not look back, putting up nine runs before the Macs scored their lone run in the fifth. From there Rowan would respond with two more runs in the fifth and see out the 11-1 victory.With all their momentum and dominance throughout the home stand, Rowan’s 12-2 blowout loss at the hands of Kean was quite a shock. The first two innings were a stalemate, but the Cougars would take over with dominant fourth and fifth innings, putting up seven runs in the two innings to Rowan’s single run. The two teams would trade runs in the 6th, but the Rowan could not keep up with the Cougars for the rest of the game. Everything went right for Kean, while nearly nothing did for Rowan.After the blowout loss to Kean, Rowan would earn their win back over the Cougars. Andrew DiPiazza earned his third victory of the season. Kean jumped out ahead in the second with a Brandon Johannesson RBI. Matt Woods tied it up in the fourth with a home run, and Alex Kokos brought the Profs ahead with an RBI double. Steven Hewa would incease the lead for the Profs, scoring on a wild pitch. The Profs would see it out from there.The Profs ended their home stand with a 4-1 record. We saw Rowan at their best at times, blowing out teams such as Haverford and Immaculata. The blowout loss to Kean is a puzzling result, but more encouraging is their 3-1 victory response that same day.