RYNE ROMICK

GRANVILLE, Ohio – Ryne Romick grew up watching his dad, Mark, coach baseball at River High School, even playing for him. That led to a lifetime of baseball memories.

However, his last memory, and without a doubt the most memorable, came just last week when Denison University captured the NCAA Division III National Championship at Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, to cap a fantastic 51-3 campaign.

Romick just completed his 10th season as the assistant coach with the Big Red and his fifth season as Associate Head Coach. He has enjoyed two stints under head coach Mike Deegan.

The national title came after a 4-3, 10-inning decision over Endicott College, of Beverly, Massachusetts, in the third and deciding game of the best-of-three championship series format.

“To be honest, so many things were going on … from who was warming up for the next inning to were we going to bunt or not bunt (it was first and second with no outs) and what were they doing defensively,” Romick recalled when the Big Red walked it off. “They’re an exceptional bunt defense team so we were gauging what they were doing. Once the ball hit the wall, the world just stopped and I remembered looking at Coach Deegan and guys were running past. I’ll never forget just staring at him while guys stormed past us.

“Really it was ‘holy …, that just happened.”‘

Denison started the season 1-1 after a 13-4 win over Christopher Newport University and a 4-1 loss to Salisbury University in the D3 Showcase in Greensboro, N.C. However, it would be a really long time until the Big Red tasted defeat again as they embarked on a nearly hard-to-believe 44-game winning streak to win the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament in three games; the NCAA Regional, also in three games; and the NCAA Super Regional in a two-game sweep of Piedmont University of Demorest, Georgia, with all of those postseason games being played at home.

“No one really talked about the streak. But there were plenty of things that were just happening and were ‘supposed’ to happen every game,” Romick added. “I always hand out positioning cards for defense and when we had a doubleheader, guys would hand them back and I had to pass them back out. Skip (Coach Deegan) hung the lineup card, I would write the opposing lineup every day with the same marker. Just little stuff like that, not superstitious but a little stitious.”

Has being a national champion set in yet?

“A night ago I rewatched the last four innings again. I am generally really good at recall,” he admitted. “As far as us on defense, I can recall at bats and pitch sequences from games in the middle of the year but I didn’t remember any of the last few innings until I watched it back. So no, it hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“You always dream of winning a national championship, but honestly, it was so much harder than I ever dreamed it would be,” he added. “The amount of work and sacrifice from so many players and staff members still seems crazy to me. The resilience of the group is something I don’t think people can truly understand.”

In Romick’s position as associate head coach, he serves in a variety of roles.

“I’m really the defensive coordinator. I run the pitching staff as my main job, but work with the entire defense from positioning to in-game defensive play calls,” he described. “Everything runs through Coach Deegan, but it’s my job to prepare that group and know what we would like to do. I call all the pitches, picks, bunt coverages, etcetera, while we’re on defense.”

Although Denison went to the D-III World Series while posting a superb 41-7 mark in 2025, the national championship was just a dream.

“We lost three Power Four arms in the transfer portal along with a senior who signed with the (San Diego) Padres and 2-3 good senior bullpen arms. We had lost 75 percent of our innings and 2-3 senior offensive pieces who were integral to our team,” Romick disclosed. “One of those was arguably, and in my opinion, one of the best D-3 players of all time, Eric Colaco. So we went into the year just trying to find ourselves. We didn’t know who we were yet. But we started winning and while we were winning in the first couple weeks we started to find out who we were.”

Romick has served two different terms under Deegan.

“He’s just everything for me as far as a mentor and a friend. He’s been there for me personally and professionally from the moment I’ve met him,” Tomick said of his relationship with the head coach. “I can’t say enough about who he is and what he’s meant to me as a coach. He’s shaped the way I think and the way I work along with the way I try to be a good husband and parent.”

Does he see himself climbing the coaching ladder, possible at the D-I level?

“I’ve been a D-I recruiting coordinator and pitching coach,” he said of his time at the University of Dayton. “Being a D-I head coach is not something that drives me at this point in my life to put a title on it. I want to have a fulfilling job that allows me to impact people and do what I love to do while still being able to be a great husband and father to my wife, Leah, and 4-year-old son, Ledger. The couple resides in Blacklick, Ohio.

“The reason I do what I do is growing up watching my dad coach and seeing the relationships and change he created in young kids at River,” Romick professed. “He’s still my hero.”

After a standout prep career for his father in Hannibal, Romick went into coaching after a stellar pitching career at Akron from 2006-09. In his sophomore campaign, he anchored the bullpen with 22 appearances, 29 strikeouts, and four saves in 34 innings of work. He continued that success in his junior season with 23 strikeouts in 29 innings. Romick capped off his career by earning Akron’s Pitcher of the Year honors after giving up just 21 hits in 28 1/3 innings on the mound. He led the team with a 3.45 ERA while adding three saves and a .208 opponent batting average.