ANNVILLE, Pa. – The 24th ranked Washington & Jefferson College baseball team was defeated 9-0 by 10th ranked Rowan University Sunday morning in the NCAA Regional Championship Round at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa.
The loss concludes W&J's season at 37-10 overall. The 37 wins are tied for the third most in a single season in school history.
Rowan improved to 33-8 overall and advances to the NCAA Super Regionals. The Profs will face No. 1 Eastern Connecticut State in a three-game series next weekend.
"When you get in the loser's bracket you face a tough road," said head coach
Jeff Mountain. "We just played three games in 24 hours in a heat advisory. We wouldn't trade it for anything. We had our chances yesterday and today against Rowan."
Michael Miles tossed a complete game three-hit shutout to lead the Profs. Miles struck out six and walked two in the 109-pitch effort. Miles stranded six Presidents in scoring position. W&J left the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning.
"Throughout the tournament I thought we did a good job of scoring runs with two outs," Mountain said. "Today that just didn't happen. We couldn't get that first run especially when we were more in the flow of the game."
Rowan struck for three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Back-to-back one-out singles put runners on the corners for the Profs. Rowan catcher Hunter Wroniuk laid down a safety squeeze bunt to give the Profs a 1-0 lead. The next hitter, first baseman Eric DiDomenico, followed with a two-run home run to left to stretch the lead to 3-0.
W&J brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the top of the seventh. However, Miles recorded the next two Presidents to end the threat.
Rowan tacked on a run in the bottom of the seventh before adding five more runs in the eighth to put the game away.
"All the credit to Rowan. We played them in 2019 in the Regionals as well," Mountain said. "They are hard nosed, gritty and tough. They seemed to play more for each other. They got over the hump last year in the regionals at Marietta."
Henry Litman (Marietta, Ga./Walton) started and gave the Presidents a chance. Litman allowed four runs in 7.0 innings of work.
Johnny Nixon (Darlington, Pa./Blackhawk) retired the final two hitters in the eighth inning out of the bullpen.
Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) was the lone President to reach base twice. Sante singled in the second and walked in the fourth.
Sunday's game marked just the second time that W&J was shut out in 2022. The other shutout came in a 3-0 loss to Wisconsin Stevens Point on March 22.
Five Profs finished with multi-hit games during the 15-hit output.
The W&J senior class has compiled an 18-6 record in postseason play. They won three Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament Championships, made three NCAA Tournament appearances, won one NCAA Regional, won one NCAA Super Regional and advanced to the Division III College World Series in 2019.
This senior class has compiled a 113-32 overall record during their four-year run with the program.
"Really appreciative of all of their efforts," Mountain said. "As you get to be older you start to the see the bigger picture. You start to appreciate how much people really grow from the time they step foot on campus as 18 year olds through graduation tomorrow at the age of 21 or 22. I have a lot of respect for this group going through what we have been through this year."
