NJAC champion Rutgers-Camden to face Rensselaer in NCAA opener
CAMDEN, N.J. (May 12, 2025) – The Rutgers University-Camden baseball team established program history when it captured the school's first New Jersey Athletic Conference Baseball Championship last Friday.
As a result, the NJAC champions earned the first automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship in program history, and the Scarlet Raptors found out their next test on a selection show Monday. Rutgers-Camden (29-15) will play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (29-14) at 2:30 p.m. on Friday in a four-team pod held at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. John's Hopkins (39-3), the nation's top-ranked team, will face Farmingdale State (26-14) in Friday's other first-round game in the double-elimination regional pod.
The survivor of that pod will advance to a best-of-three Super Regional May 23-24. The winners from the eight Super Regionals will meet at the Division III World Series in Eastlake, Ohio, May 30-June 5. Eastlake, slightly northeast of Cleveland, borders Lake Erie.
NCAA bracket
Entering the NJAC tournament as the sixth seed, Rutgers-Camden ran through the top four seeds, beginning with top-seeded Kean University (7-4) and adding wins over fourth-seeded Montclair State (12-8 in 10 innings), second-seeded Rowan (19-7) and third-seeded The College of New Jersey (5-2) to win the title.
Rensselaer, located in Troy, New York, took a different path to its Liberty League championship. The Engineers lost their first conference playoff game, 13-1, against Ithaca College before storming back through the losers' bracket with wins over Clarkson (10-1), Skidmore (14-3) and back-to-back victories over Ithaca in the championship round (16-6 and 4-1).
Rutgers-Camden is one of five NJAC teams to reach the NCAA tournament, including Rowan, Kean, Ramapo and TCNJ. The trip to the NCAA tournament will be the second in program history for the Scarlet Raptors, who received an at-large bid to the 2014 regionals. They lost to Farmingdale State (4-2), beat Castleton State (18-11) and were eliminated by Kean (5-4).
The 64-team NCAA field includes nine teams the Scarlet Raptors have already faced this season, including multiple games against some of their NJAC opponents in the NCAA field. Rutgers-Camden went 2-1 against Rowan, 2-1 against TCNJ, 1-2 against Kean, 0-2 against Ramapo, 1-0 against Keystone, 1-0 against Mount Union, 0-1 against Johns Hopkins and 0-1 against Denison.
Rutgers-Camden enters the NCAA tournament only three wins shy of the program record, set by the 32-10 team from 2002. The only other team in program history to reach 30 wins in one season was the 2014 squad, which went 30-13-1.
The Scarlet Raptors' season has included numerous highlights, in addition to the NJAC title, including the 100th win by Head Coach
Ryan Kulick, the 100th career hits by second baseman
Frankie Romond and first baseman
Diego Salazar, and a return to the national rankings on March 18, when they peaked at 19th in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll and 25th in the ABCA Division III Top 30 poll.
Designated hitter/first baseman
Jack Murphy had a season-long assault on the program's career records and enters the NCAA tournament as the all-time Rutgers-Camden leader in games (181), RBIs (157)m home runs (23) and doubles (49). Murphy earned NJAC Second Team honors on his way to hitting .364 with his single-season record of 18 doubles. He tied the season mark of seven sacrifice flies and his next RBI will tie the single-season mark of 53.
Romond captured NJAC First Team honors with a team-leading .377 batting average, while pacing the club with 63 hits, 44 runs, four triples, eight home runs (one shy of tying the single-season record), 108 total bases and a .647 slugging percentage. Defensively, Romond set a single-season record with 30 double plays.
Right fielder
Brandon Petrick hit .324 to contribute to the team's .296 batting average. Petrick also played outstanding defensive ball, collecting six outfield assists.
Infielder/designated hitter
Austin Dubler hit .289 with a team-leading 24 stolen bases, third baseman
Ryan Nutley hit .288 and drew 31 walks, one shy of the program's single-season record, and
Steven Shaffer hit .279 while playing stellar defensive ball in center field, collecting 101 putouts and one assist in 102 chances for a 1.000 fielding percentage.
Ryan Joseph broke into the starting lineup midway through the season and was so impressive in left field he earned NJAC Honorable Mention. He his .316 with 20 RBIs. Behind the plate, the Raptors returns a pair of All-NJAC players from 2024 in
Evan Carbone and
Julian Gonzalez, while another mid-season addition to the lineup, shortstop
Chris Smith, hit .286 and made highlight-reel plays defensively.
The Scarlet Raptors' starting staff included
Ethan Carpenter (11 starts, 7-2, 4.74 in 62.2 innings),
Chase Cooper (10 starts, 5-2, 2.33 in 54 innings),
Daniel Robeson (nine starts, 3-3, 5.14 in 64.2 innings, and the winning pitcher in the NJAC title-clinching game) and
Ryan Rumsey (seven starts, 4-1, 4.98 in 34.1 innings). Closer
Jacob Shapley, meanwhile, led the team with five saves in his 17 appearances, while posting a 4-2 record and a 4.50 ERA. In the NJAC tournament, he won two games and saved another during the Raptors' 4-0 run.
The Engineers own a .313 team batting average, led by right fielder Ian Oehlschlaeger, who paced the club with a .429 batting average, 53 runs, nine home runs and 110 total bases, while also adding 52 RBIs. He went 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI in the title-clinching game over Ithaca.
Designated hitter Ayush Krishnappa hit .422 with a team-leading 54 RBIs, third baseman Michael Lebenson hit .371 with a team-high 14 doubles and second baseman Jon Primerano hit .346.
Rensselaer's top two starters are Liam Riordan (6-2, 3.69 in 61 innings over 11 starts) and Rylan Wade (6-1, 5.15 in 10 starts and 57.2 innings). Mike Nelson made nine starts and pitched 46.2 innings, posting a 5-1 record and a 4.44 ERA, while closer Zach Zajac worked a team-high 19 games, pitching 30 innings and recording six saves, a 2-2 record and a 3.90 ERA.
