Rowan baseball facing mixed results in conference despite overall success

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As the university tears up High Street and the other other roads around it, it seems as if the Rowan baseball team is driving over the bumpy road that currently awaits paving.

Although they boast an impressive 19-9 overall record, which is better than the previous two years at this point of the season, the team’s play has been in flux lately.

Unfortunately, this inconsistency comes within New Jersey Athletic Conference play. This past week, the Profs put up a 2-2 record against NJAC foes while showing zero run differential.

“I think we’ve been beating each other up in the conference,” head coach Mike Dickson said. “All three games we lost [in conference] were all one-run games. There were some miscues, so obviously we have to play better late to pick up wins.”

Rowan played Stockton University twice in the last week, splitting both games. In the first matchup, the Ospreys picked up a home victory with a final score of 6-5.

Stockton overcame a 3-run deficit by pouring six runs on the Profs in the third inning and were able to hold off a late run by Rowan in the fifth. Rowan redeemed themselves with a 9-8 comeback victory on Sunday in The Nest. The Profs took a page from Stockton’s playbook as they had six cross the plate in the second, giving them a 6-2 lead after two frames. The Osprey’s scored five unanswered runs to give them a 7-6 lead heading to the eighth. Freshman Alex Kokos capped off his outing with a triple that sent two Profs home.

Rowan holds a stellar team ERA despite being rocked around a bit this past week.

In the NJAC, the Profs hold a 3.00 ERA, putting them in first, with TCNJ following behind with a 3.44 team ERA. The brown and gold have also had 900 at-bats, good enough for second in the NJAC. Unfortunately, they’ve only produced a .296 batting average that puts them in the middle of the pack.

“We are constantly working on things from an offensive standpoint to get those guys going,” Dickson said. “We’ve been up-and-down in the middle of our lineup. Your 3-4-5 have to be more consistent hitters, but we are still young… four of our five players in the infield are underclassmen. They are going to have some flaws in their game. It’s just a matter of time before they find that consistency.”

The team now faces five games in four days, highlighted by a doubleheader against Rutgers-Newark in Glassboro on Saturday.

When asked about the reason for the influx of games in such a short period, Dickson laughed and blamed it on “bad coaching.”

He also added that the game against Moravian College is rare, due to non-conference games usually being played on Tuesdays before team’s have conference weekends.

No matter, the Profs defeated the Greyhounds, 4-3.

Rowan will take on Rutgers-Camden tomorrow in Camden, New Jersey.

For questions/comments about this story email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @thewhitonline.

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