MARIETTA, Ohio — If Rowan looks like a team playing with a chip on its shoulder … well, there may be a good reason.

"I've been here for four years and I've played in three regionals. Unfortunately, (the second game) in the regionals is the game we lose," said senior shortstop Nick Schooley. "As the one seed people have been saying, even the guys who do the D3baseball.com podcast have been talking about how we choke all the time. To say the least, this one was very important to me and I had a little bit of extra edge."

That edge helped Schooley go 3-for-5 with four RBI as the Profs rallied to defeat St. John Fisher 6-3 in Game 5 of the NCAA Division III Baseball Regional at Marietta College's Don & Sue Schaly Field late Friday.

"I've been seeing the ball really well, but if those guys aren't on base when I come up then there is nothing for me to do," he said.

Schooley had a bunt single in the sixth inning that helped set up Rowan's first run and cut the St. John Fisher lead to 2-1. It was in the seventh inning when Schooley came up clutch for the Profs (27-4). With two out and the game tied at 2, Schooley doubled to left center off St. John Fisher starter RJ Kuruts (11-2) to drive home Ryan McIsaac and Ryan Murphy — giving Rowan its first lead of the game at 4-2.

"It's been a different guy for us throughout the year," said Rowan coach Mike Dickson. "I think when you are not relying on one or two guys and on any given day someone can step up and be that person. I think that's what a team is all about."

McIsaac, Rowan's lead-off hitter, went 4-for-5 with two runs to lift his season average to .418. Third baseman Victor Cruz added two hits and run, while second baseman Alex Kokos was 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run.

St. John Fisher, who was eliminated from the tournament with the loss, didn't go away quietly. Down 4-2, the Cardinals responded in the bottom of the seventh when Patrick Kravits singled up the middle off of reliever Jason O'Neill to drive home James Ward.

However, O'Neill shut down St. John Fishers' batters in the eighth and Zach Listro pitched a solid ninth inning to record his sixth save of the season.

"We played two really good teams," said St. John Fisher coach Brandon Potter. "I believe we may have played the two toughest matchups in a row of any other team in the entire NCAA Tournament. Rowan is a really good program. It was fun and we enjoyed it."

Both teams showed a lot of emotion throughout the contest, and the Cardinals energy level spiked as catcher Adam Zebrowski hit solo home runs in the second inning and the fourth inning off of Rowan starter Donald Zellman (5-0).

"He's a great hitter. We were just talking about how he's getting Major League looks," Zellman said. "Our game plan was to pitch him away and I left two balls inside and those are the balls he hit. However, that last at bat I was able to pitch him outside and I was able to get him to strike out."

Zellman, who threw 104 pitches, scattered seven hits and gave up three runs, walked only one and struck out six.
 
"I thought Donny got better as the game went on. You can give up solo home runs," Dickson said. "At the end of the day it's when you give up two or three-run home runs. They're the ones that hurt you and usually that happens when you are giving up (walks). When you don't give up freebies and you give up solo home runs you can move on and tip your hat to a good player. Donnie was fantastic tonight."

Zellman said he wanted to keep throwing, but he trusted his coach that the time was right to make a change.

"My adrenaline was going and I wanted to stay out there, but overall it is their decision and I trust the coaches," he said. "Today I felt like I could have thrown 200 pitches."

The game was delayed more than four hours because of a constant rain following Friday's first game between Penn State-Behrend and Rochester. The late start pushed the sixth game of the regional between Marietta and North Carolina Wesleyan to 9 a.m. Saturday. The winner of that game will face Rowan later on Saturday.

"We've been here two times before and we've fallen short. We were younger then, but now we're the older guys and we take that personally. There's people out there saying that we are choke artists and we don't have the stuff to get through to the World Series and that's our motivation," Schooley said. "I said to the guys that four wins every weekend is our goal. That's our goal here. Still two more to go. The job is not finished yet."