College baseball: Tampa scores 8 in 3rd, ends Catawba’s season
Published 1:24 am Thursday, June 4, 2026
Staff report
CARY – Catawba’s record-breaking, 49-win baseball season ended quietly with a 17-2 loss to Tampa in the Division II World Series.
Catawba’s fifth World Series trip under head coach Jim Gantt included two high-scoring victories, one exciting loss and Wednesday’s lopsided setback that eliminated the Indians.
The Spartans, who have won 10 national championships, scored eight runs in the third inning to steamroll the third-seeded Indians. Second-seeded Tampa (49-8) will continue the pursuit of its 11th championship against top-seeded West Chester.
When Catawba (49-14) took the field as the visiting team in Cary on Wednesday night only three teams were still alive in the tournament, so the Indians can claim a bronze medal. That wasn’t the goal, but it was one heck of a season that included South Atlantic Conference regular season and Southeast Regional championships.
Catawba scored first. In the top of the third, Logan Dyer knocked in a run with a single and Brandon Crabtree got one home with a sacrifice fly.
Colt Wilkins shut out Tampa the first two innings, but Tampa erupted in the bottom of the third.
“When we scored two, we made them mad,” Gantt said. “They started to hit.”
It was a nightmare bottom of the third, as the Spartans sent 14 men to the plate to score those eight runs. The damage was done by six hits, two walks, two errors and one HBP.
Catawba used eight pitchers in the game, but Tampa didn’t let up, added two three-run innings, and won emphatically.
Tampa had 16 hits – 14 singles and two doubles.
Dyer had three of Catawba’s eight hits. Malachi Cloud and Hunter Atkins had two each.
Freshman Marshal Faw threw the last pitches of the season for the Indians in the bottom of the eighth.
John Luke Glanton pitched six innings for the win. Jesse Ponce had a three-run double in the third.
Catawba is 9-10 in D-II World Series games.
Catawba is 0-10 against Tampa since 2008.
Catawba 002 000 000 – 2
Tampa 008 313 0zx -17
L – Wilkins (12-3).