By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY – Catawba head baseball coach Jim Gantt doesn’t lack for experience in the Division II National Championships.
Southeast Regional kingpin Catawba is in the event for the fifth time – all since Gantt guided the program to the championships in Cary for the first time back in 2012.
“There have been some years where I think maybe we were happy just to get there,” Gantt said. “It’s always great to get there, but it would be nice to win one. We’ve been close. This team has a chance. This team might be the best we’ve had as far as playing in that big ball park.”
Catawba is ranked third in D-II and even spent some time this season at No. 1.
Catawba (47-12) has tied the program record for victories. The Indians will take on Point Loma, the California squad that won the West Regional, at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at Cary’s USA Baseball National Training Complex. Catawba is seeded third. The Point Loma Sea Lions (49-11) are seeded sixth.
“Point Loma has hard throwers and a lot of strong left-handed hitters,” Gantt said. “They’re good. Everyone in Cary is going to be good.”
Catawba has eight local players on the roster, including four starting lineup fixtures – second baseman Ty Hubbard (South Rowan), shortstop Nathan Chrismon (South), left fielder Logan Dyer (East Rowan) and catcher Matthew Connolly (West Rowan). Casey Gouge (West) is one of the key starting pitchers, while Joe Burleyson (East) is the closer. Cam Burleyson (Carson) is the backup catcher. Freshman pitcher Marshal Faw (South) has talent. He should be a factor in 2027.
A D-II baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Catawba opened this season back on Jan. 30 and will finish it in June.
“We’ve got good players, good guys, good students, so it’s been a fun season to be a part of,” Gantt said. “All our graduating senior baseball players had at least a 3.5 GPA. We didn’t have any off-the-field issues.”
No season of such length is going to go exactly as planned. There have been slumps and surprises. Gantt was convinced in January that Catawba’s Kemper Nix would be the South Atlantic Conference Pitcher of the Year, while Gouge was penciled in for mid-week starts and bulk relief innings in SAC games.
A senior lefty, Gouge (9-1) took charge in the role of weekend starter and was honored as the SAC and Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year. He stayed undefeated most of the season.
A Limestone transfer, Nix, another southpaw, experienced some struggles, but he got back on track at the optimal time for the Indians late in the season. Nix’s ERA is still an uninspiring 5.11, but he’s also 4-0 with 74 strikeouts in 61.2 innings.
“Nix was getting in bad counts and getting hit hard early on,” Gantt said. “But he’s figured some things out. He’s very talented. In the Super Regional, he was throwing 91 to 96 and he was throwing his slider for strikes. You can win with that.”
Colt Wilkins, another Limestone transfer, a right-hander, has been a rock for the staff all season, 11-2 in 16 starts, with 101 strikeouts in 106 workhorse innings.
“He works so hard every day,” Gantt said. “With a work ethic like he has, you’re going to be successful.”
The bullpen has been keyed by Seth Sharpe (9-1), who can handle multiple innings and has often been the bridge from the starter to closer Joe Burleyson. An unheralded recruit, Burleyson has been fantastic as an All-America sophomore (3-1, 12 saves. 2.09 ERA).
Burleyson got the last out of the Super Regional when Francis Marion had the tying runs on base in the top of the ninth.
Catawba got in trouble in that ninth inning when Chrismon and Hubbard missed connections on a force play at second base. It appeared to be a pretty routine ground ball to shortstop Chrismon, but it was not a routine play because Catawba was employing a shift against Francis Marion star Charles Bussey that had second baseman Hubbard playing on the left side of the infield.
“Bussey is one of the best players in the country, 113 hits, and we know he never hits a ground ball to the right side,” Gantt explained. “So we’ve got the shift on him, three infielders on the left side. He hit the ball where we expected him to, but it’s a different throw for the shortstop with the second baseman moving over to the bag from the left side instead of coming straight in to the bag from the right side. We do practice making that throw, but their timing was off, and we had a rare error up the middle. Those two guys are coaches on the field out there. High baseball IQ guys. They’ve played together so long, they always know where the other one is going to be. They run the show and don’t make many mistakes.”
The unexpected error made things tense, but ultimately didn’t hurt. Burleyson pitched around FMU’s other star with a walk that filled the bases and then got a first-pitch pop up to the end game and send Catawba back to Cary.
“That walk may have gone against the book, putting the tying run on base, but we weren’t going to let that guy (Ethan McAnally) hit a three-run homer,” Gantt said.
Defense is a key for Catawba. Defense is the most underrated aspect of the game. Catawba has been charged with only 33 errors in 59 games. Opponents have made 69 errors in those games. Hubbard has made only two errors all season. Catawba also has turned more double plays than opponents, even though Catawba pitchers have allowed far fewer base runners.
“We’ve hit it well and we’ve pitched it well,” Gantt said. “But we’ve also played really good defense. You can pitch it all you want, but if you don’t catch it, you’re like a cat chasing his tail. We’ve had teams that hit more homers, but this year’s team is pretty good at playing the game of baseball.”
The centerpiece of Catawba’s offense has been first baseman Brandon Crabtree, Tremendous stats tell part of the story for the SAC Player of the Year, an All-America pick. He’s batting .429 with 18 homers, 23 doubles, 76 runs and 70 RBIs.
“He’s also been a great first baseman, and that was a position we had some concerns about in January,” Gantt said. “He filled a big void there. He hits the ball really hard. Early in the season, he was hitting it on the ground a lot, and ground balls don’t go over the fence. But he made adjustments and started getting balls in the air.”
Jake Dunlap emerged as the regular DH and has batted .395 with 49 RBIs.
Swift, explosive newcomer Malachi Cloud has been as dynamic as advertised in center field and has 32 steals in 34 attempts.
“They’ve got a big center field in Cary, and Cloud is going to get a chance to make even more plays there,” Gantt said. “And if he gets on base, it’s tough to keep him from stealing second.”
Hunter Atkins has been steady while holding down third base, lots of 2-for-4s. He’s batting .337 with 56 RBIs.
Veteran outfielder Sam Hunter, who moved from center to right this season, has been banged up with injuries – he was involved in a bone-jarring collision at first base – but he has stolen 25 bases and scored 64 runs while batting .349.
Gantt said the turning point of the season was when Dyer was installed in the lead-off spot in early March. Catawba scored 23 runs when Dyer led off against Barton, and he stayed at lead-off. The sophomore, a high school second baseman who didn’t have a regular job for the Indians as a freshman, found a home in left field. He batted .393 with a .498 on-base percentage. He walked 41 times, while striking out only 17 times. He scored 72 runs.
“He’s been outstanding as the lead-off man,” Gantt said. “He’s always on base. Not a lot of power yet, but that’s going to come for him.”
In addition to anchoring the up-the-middle defense, Chrismon and Hubbard have been solid offensive contributors. Hubbard is a .313 hitter with 22 doubles and 44 RBIs. Chrismon is a .295 hitter with 48 RBIs and 25 steals in 26 attempts. Chrismon walloped a huge, three-run homer in the decisive Super Regional game.
Connolly is only batting .225, but he’s a power threat at a defense-first position. He has 12 homers and 54 RBIs.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who will give us that nine, 10 or 11 pitch at-bat by fouling off pitches,” Gantt said. With the lineup we have, sometimes, we’re able to wear pitchers out.”
They’ll try to wear out a few more hurlers in Cary, where most of the arms they’ll see will be firing electric stuff.
Catawba lost a dozen games, but the team stayed consistent, winning every single SAC series during the regular season.
“We’ve handled the losses that we’ve had pretty well,” Gantt said. “When we lost to Wingate in the conference tournament, it was disappointing because we certainly wanted to win it, but at the same time, that setback helped get us re-focused.”
Tampa, a 10-time champion, is the No. 2 seed in Cary. The No. 1 seed is West Chester (Pa.). The No. 4 seed is Central Missouri, last year’s runner-up.
Catawba’s second game in the tournament will be on Monday.
