PITTSBURGH — The beat goes on with La Roche College baseball.

And Chase Rowe continues to be the lead drummer.

The Redhawks (36-9) begin play in the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional today at Washington & Jefferson as the tournament’s No. 1 seed. It marks the first time any Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference baseball team has had the top seed in that regional.

Then again, La Roche baseball is the school’s only sport to ever win an NCAA regional game — and Rowe has more than 250 wins in 10 years as head coach there. The team’s 36 wins this year broke the school record of 32 wins in a season set last year.

“The mental side of this game is just remarkable,” said Rowe, a Knoch High School and Slippery Rock University graduate. “This is the most mentally deep team I’ve had here.

“I think that’s why we’ve been able to do what we’ve done.”

Third baseman-shortstop Colin Williamson, a Butler graduate, agrees.

“We’ve come back to win a lot of games this year and that mental toughness is the reason why,” Williamson said.

Williamson has had a lot to do with that success as well.

Now playing his third position at La Roche — third base, shortstop and center field — Williamson is hitting .337 with 11 doubles, six homers and 30 RBI. His on-base percentage is .431.

He has hit over .300 in each of his four years with the Redhawks and is playing on his third consecutive AMCC championship team.

“Each year has been a spin-off from the previous team,” Williamson said. “We lost 12 seniors last year, but all of the guys coming back knew we could get it done.

“We always feed off the success of the previous year.”

Rowe says La Roche has fed off the success of Williamson.

“Colin epitomizes the player who puts the team first, the program first,” Rowe said. “He’s moved around to all of those different positions and he’s been the best player I’ve had at each of those positions in my 10 years here.

“His unselfishness has made him a true leader on this team. Everybody here respects him.”

La Roche is hitting .334 as a team this season, its opponents just .255. The Redhawks’ team earned run average is 3.59, the opposition’s 7.51.

The Redhawks enter the regional having won 22 of their last 24 games.

“We have a group of guys here who have trained to be utility players,” Williamson said. “It’s great to have guys like that, moving around and learning new positions.

“We’ve got all kinds of flexibility with our lineup. It’s one of the reasons we’re doing so well.”

Rowe is unsure how his program has been able to sustain success for this long.

“I don’t have an answer as to why we keep getting the talent we do,” he said. “Our program and our teams seem to keep getting better and better. We’ve always had a competitive atmosphere here and athletes like that.”

Williamson graduated May 7 with a marketing and management degree. He has a part-time marketing position awaiting him this summer with Armstrong Cable in Butler.

He plans on staying involved with baseball in some way — either playing for a summer team, umpiring, coaching or any combination of the three.

“I haven’t sorted that out yet. Right now, I’m concentrating on finishing off my final season here,” he said. “There are still a lot of things we have to get done.”

La Roche fell one win short of qualifying for the Division III World Series last year, losing in the Mideast Regional title game.

“When I came here as a freshman, I was just trying to find my way,” Williamson recalled. “Chase became like a father to me in baseball. Over the past four years, he helped me find myself as a baseball player, a college student and a person.

“It will be tough next year not having him around to push me every day and drive me to get better. I owe a lot to that guy.”