Welcome back for another edition of the college baseball roundup, where we take a look at how some our local guys are doing in their respective college seasons over the past week both near and far.

As always, this roundup is brought to you by Five Star Hiring, a company whose purpose is to help student athletes prepare for life after their athletic careers end as they transition into the real world.

Most of these guys have about a month left in their regular season, maybe a bit less than that before playoffs begin. Last year, we had a couple of National Champions, and it seems like we have the potential for some more in 2025 after we had these last year:

• Bryan Henry/Drew Van Horn: D3 Misericordia
• Owen Mathes/Drew Lamonica: D1 Club Baseball Penn State
• Brendan Liney/Nico Marusco/Zach Taylor: D2 Club Baseball West Chester

Mike Valente, Cal U (Strath Haven)

Mike Valente has been getting consistent innings since he arrived on campus at the PSAC’s Cal U as a freshman, and has had a great career so far.

2025 is where he has truly blossomed into an ace.

Valente has thrown 39.1 innings and has an ERA of 2.29 with 40 strikeouts. He has started seven games and has won all seven of those games. That’s pretty rare in this era to be able to go deep enough in each game to do that.

He’s been a huge part of the red hot 24-7 start to Cal U’s season where they are also 11-4 in the PSAC. It looks like a good bet that Valente and Sun Valley’s Ikon Jones will find their way into the PSAC Tournament and potentially the NCAA Tournament come May.

Steve Theisen, Immaculata (Garnet Valley)

Steve Theisen will go down as one of the most decorated players to ever play at Immaculata, but he isn’t quite done yet.

Immaculata had never won an Atlantic East title in baseball before Theisen got there, and they have now won three in a row. 2025 isn’t looking too hot in terms of repeating as they are 8-20 overall, but Theisen is doing his best to keep them competitive.

That includes a Grand Slam this weekend against Marywood for his second HR of the year. He’s hitting .381 this season with a .977 OPS for the Macs. They are still 4-5 in the conference, so there’s plenty of baseball left for them to find their way in the conference tournament and use their experience to get back in the NCAA Tournament.

Will Kelley, Immaculata (Episcopal)

Will Kelley may not have been a part of those three conference championships as he is a grad student who was previously at Ursinus, but he sure looks like he wants one of his own.

After a 5/11 series, Kelley is hitting .400 in the season through 60 AB’s. That includes an OPS of .931 and 14 RBI.

Kelley is an on-base machine that has drew 12 walks and has an OBP of .514. As mentioned above, Immaculata is still in the mix to be playing playoff baseball even after a tough non-conference stretch to begin the season.

Roman Tozzi, Catholic (Carroll)

Roman Tozzi was a Second Team All-American for Catholic in 2024, but 2025 didn’t start out as great as he had a 5.40 ERA through four starts.

His last three starts we have seen more of that 2024 version, and Saturday against Susquehanna was the best start we’ve seen from him all season as he went seven innings allowing one unearned run and striking out four.

He did allow eight hits but he was able to keep them under control to lower his ERA to 3.92 and get things back in the right direction. Catholic is hovering around the .500 mark both in the league (7-7) and overall (15-13) as they look to get back in the NCAA Tournament.

Jack Scholz, Catholic (Lower Merion)

While Roman Tozzi was a Second Team All-American last year, Jack Scholz was playing for Lower Merion.

Watching him myself I honestly thought his future in college was at the plate and not on the mound, but Catholic has been giving him a lot of innings and it has overall gone pretty well. He turned in a great performance against Susquehanna as well as he went six innings allowing just three hits and one earned run while striking out seven.

He does not have any at bats this season so we don’t know what the future holds in terms of his hitting, but for now, we know he’s turning in quality starts on the mound in the conference as a freshman which is a lot to be proud of.

Tim Dickinson, St. Joe’s (Malvern Prep)

After a freshman season where he hit .305 in 151 AB’s as a freshman, it’s been a bit of a sophomore slump for Tim Dickinson as a whole in 2025. He came into this weekend’s series with Fordham hitting just .202, but by the end of the weekend, that number would be up to .237.

Dickinson went 3/4 in each of the final two games of the series, adding in a double and 4 RBI for good measure.

That’s the highest his average has been since it was .261 on February 22nd, and this was the first two three-hit games of the season for him.

We know how talented he is and we have seen him have success at this level, so hopefully this week can help him get back on track to build momentum.

Darren Hagan, Keystone (Garnet Valley)

This is not sarcasm here, but Darren Hagan is been on this list every single week he has played this season.

He missed some time early on this season but returned on March 25th, where he went 6/15 in his first week and really hasn’t cooled down since then. He hit for the cycle against Penn State Brandywine and already has seven multi-hit games in 14 games played.

Hagan went 8/17 this past week with at least one hit in every game of the two double headers that they had. That includes a 3 RBI game against Lancaster Bible as well.

If you are new here you may not know this, but Darren’s college, Keystone, has won 19 conference championships in a row in the United East. Sitting at 9-1 in the conference, we’ll just assume that will likely stay the case again this year and we’ll see Darren and the boys in the NCAA Tournament.

Jack Stead, NJIT (Malvern Prep)

Jack Stead didn’t get too many opportunities as a freshman at NJIT, hitting just .192 in 26 AB’s, but 2025 has been a much different story.

Stead has taken advantage of his chances to become a regular starter for the Highlanders, hitting .317 in 60 AB’s with four doubles, a triple, and a homer.

This past week he had a four hit performance against Wagner that also included 2 RBI to give him 13 for the year. NJIT is 17-16 overall but they are 7-2 in the America East conference, which would get them in the NCAA Tournament if they were to win that.

Logan Nelson, Alvernia (Garnet Valley)

For our third Garnet Valley selection of the week, Logan Nelson easily earns a spot as he drove in five runs in one game against TCNJ.

Nelson isn’t having quite as strong a season as he did last year when he hit .328 with 4 HR and 28 RBI as a freshman, but he is still hitting .260 and has almost matched his RBI total (24) from last year in 50 less at bats.

He has also been hit by seven pitches in 30 games which has to count for something.

Alvernia was their conference champion in 2024 and sitting at 12-3 in the conference this year, it seems very possible that they are ready to go win it again.

Grayson Walker, Dickinson (The Haverford School)

Grayson Walker missed all of 2024 with an injury, so this start was a long time coming.

The Newtown Square native has had some good appearances so far this season, but none longer than five innings. He surpassed that and then some as he went seven innings allowing seven hits, two runs, and striking out ten for the Red Devils.

Walker now sits with a 4.45 ERA on the year but is certainly trending in the right direction. Dickinson is around .500 right now with a 4-6 record, and winning the Centennial Conference is very tough with Johns Hopkins at the top.

Walker is a senior but since he did not pitch in 2024 he should still have a year of eligibility left if he wants after this year but for now, he is looking to help Dickinson sneak into the Centennial Conference playoffs.