Ryne Romick enters his ninth season as the assistant baseball coach at Denison University in 2025 and his fourth season as Associate Head Coach. Romick has enjoyed two stints under head coach Mike Deegan.
The 2024 season was a historic one for the Big Red. Denison finished with a school record 42 wins and its first-ever appearance in the Division III Baseball Super Regionals. Denison finished with the second-best winning percentage in D-III baseball. The Big Red won at a .840 clip during the 2024 season. The 42 wins were the fourth most in Division III. The Denison staff helped the Big Red earn a share of the NCAC conference regular season title and secured its spot in the NCAA Tournament by earning the NCAC's automatic berth following a pair of wins over Wittenberg on May 12. The Big Red finished off its fifth-straight tournament title with a 17-7 win over the Tigers. The following weekend, Denison secured its first NCAA Regional title following a perfect 3-0 mark at Big Red Field. Denison combined to outscore its opponents 54-8 over the three-game stretch. D3baseball.com awarded Eric Colaco with its highest honor as D3baseball.com Player of the year. In addition, Colaco earned First Team honors from both D3baseball and the ABCA. Noah Leib and Will Rettig joined Colaco as All-Americans. The NCAC honored the Denison staff as its Coaching Staff of the Year in 2024.
The Big Red finished their 2023 season 36-10 overall, earning the second most wins in a single season in program history for the second year in a row and advancing to the regional championship game for the third year in a row. This marked the fifth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance and the second straight year hosting regionals for Denison. The Big Red also captured the North Coast Athletic Conference Regular-Season Championship for the third straight year and won the NCAC Tournament Championship for the fourth straight season. Denison could not be stopped in its quest to finish a perfect 16-0 in NCAC action. It was the first undefeated conference season in the NCAC since the College of Wooster in 2007, and was the first 16-0 season in conference history. Then with its 7-2 victory over second-seeded Wittenberg University to wins its fourth consecutive NCAC Tournament crown, Denison joined the 2000 Ohio Wesleyan University baseball team as the only NCAC teams with an undefeated regular season and an undefeated tournament run. Romick helped coach senior starting pitcher Charlie Fleming to the second NCAC Pitcher of the Year award of his career (2021, 2023). Fleming was also the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Region 7 Pitcher of the Year and was named a Second-Team All-American by the ABCA. By the end of the season, Fleming recorded a new program record of 92 strikeouts, which broke the previous single-season record of 90 strikeouts set by Drew Shamrock in 2004. As a senior, Fleming earned three NCAC Pitcher of the Week awards, two nods to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week, and became the program's first NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association) National Pitcher of the Week selection in 18 years after throwing the third no-hitter in program history and the first since 2005 during Denison 14-0 win over Waynesburg University (May 6). Fleming was also named to the NCAC All-Tournament Team after earning the win in the championship game over Wittenberg. In addition to Fleming, sophomore Nick Falter was named first-team all-conference while junior George Viebrock was named to the third-team. Falter was also named Second-Team All-Region by the D3baseball.com and Third-Team All-Region by the ABCA while Viebrock was named the Most Valuable Player of the NCAC Tournament after pitching all three games and picking up a pair of saves. For the year, the Big Red pitching staff finished the season with a 4.69 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP, 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings and an opponents' batting average of .267.
Denison finished its 2022 season 35-11, which at the time was the second most wins in program history, while also hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time in program history. The season also marked Denison's fourth consecutive NCAA Regional berth. Romick coached senior pitcher and NCAC Tournament MVP Kenny Lippman, who following Denison's run in the regional tournament, was named a D3baseball.com First-Team All-American and became the third D3baseball.com All-American produced by the Big Red program. Both of Lippman's complete games on the year came during the postseason, starting with an 8-1 win over Wooster in the NCAC Tournament Championship game in which he allowed just four hits, one run and one walk while striking out a program record 14 Wooster batters. That broke Denison's previous single-game strikeout record of 13 set by Drew Shamrock on April 9, 2004, vs. Wabash. Then during the second round of the Granville Regional against No. 7 nationally-ranked and defending NCAA Division III National Champion Salisbury University, Lippman struck out 13 hitters and went the distance for a complete game shutout in a 2-0 victory that sent the Big Red to the regional championship for the second year in a row. Romick coached three All-NCAC pitchers in 2022, including Lippman (First-Team), Trey Holland (Second-Team) and Taylor Perrett (Second-Team) while Lippman was named All-Region by both D3baseball.com and the ABCA and Holland was Third-Team All-Region by D3baseball.com. Coach Romick's pitching staff finished the season with a 3.56 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, an average of 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a .258 opponents' batting average.
In 2021, Romick coached the NCAC Pitcher of the Year Charlie Fleming and two All-NCAC West players in Fleming and Taylor Perrett. Fleming also earned All-Mideast Region honors in 2021. The Big Red made it's third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. His pitching staff had a 4.43 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, averaged 8.5 K/9 with opposing teams hitting .273.
Denison wrapped up its record-breaking 2019 season with a 39-9 record. The Big Red won a school-record 17-straight games while capturing the program's first-ever NCAC Tournament Championship. The team advanced to the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament for the second time in school history, capturing its first postseason victory against La Roche. Under Romick's watchful eye, the pitching staff posted a team ERA of 3.73 while holding the opposition to a .253 batting average.
Prior to his return to Granville, Romick spent the 2018 season as a volunteer assistant for the Ohio University baseball program. During his lone season in Athens, the Bobcats tallied 21 wins and recorded a 4.45 team earned run average, good for third-best in the Mid-American Conference.
Before his time at OU, Romick worked as the pitching coach at the University of Dayton from 2014-2017. While at Dayton, he helped the Flyers post the program's best numbers in earned run average, walks and batting average against since 2011.
He joined Dayton following his first stretch with the Big Red, where he was the top assistant and volunteer prior to that.
During his first turn at DU, Romick helped the team to the NCAC West Division title in back-to-back seasons, compiling an overall record of 46-37. In his first year at Denison, Romick led a talented pitching staff that had the second-best ERA in the league with a 3.63 team ERA, a two-run drop from the year before. The Big Red were also amongst the conference leaders in ERA, strikeouts, and opponents' batting average.
Romick went into coaching after a standout 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.
Romick received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Akron before completing his master's of education from Ohio Valley in West Virginia. As a graduate assistant with OVU, he helped the pitching staff drop its ERA by two-plus runs in his two years with the program.
A native of Hannibal, Ohio, Romick attended River High School, earning All-Ohio honors in baseball and basketball.
