The road to Cary is complete. The final eight teams are set to begin play on May 29 from the USA Baseball National Training Complex in North Carolina, a destination that the nearly 300 DII baseball teams all strive for from opening day.
🏆⚾ Bracket, schedule, scores ⚾🏆
The field is quite familiar. Both of the teams that battled for the 2025 national championship are back as Central Missouri is the No. 4 seed and Tampa is the No. 2 seed. No. 5 UT Tyler is back for the second year in a row after a thrilling three-game battle with nationally top-ranked Colorado Mesa. No. 3 Catawba is back for the second time in three years and Point Loma is keeping that even-year trend alive, now reaching Cary in 2022, 2024 and 2026. Naturally, the surprise of Cary — which actually comes as no surprise — is No. 8-seeded UIndy, back in Cary for the third time in the past four seasons.
It is the first time back to Cary for No. 1 West Chester, but let’s not forget: The Golden Rams are two-time national champs, winning in 2012 and 2017. That leaves Bentley, making its Cary debut. The Falcons draw Tampa in its quest for the first three-peat in DII baseball history. Talk about a tough opening debut.
Here is what you need to know for the DII baseball finals.
Eight for Cary: By the numbers
| Team | Batting avg. | OPS | Runs scored | Home runs | ERA | WHIP | BAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Chester | .313 | .943 | 456 | 55 | 4.02 | 1.32 | .261 |
| Tampa | .313 | .918 | 452 | 61 | 2.97 | 1.18 | .232 |
| Catawba | .332 | .927 | 493 | 56 | 4.48 | 1.48 | .261 |
| Central Mo. | .321 | .923 | 473 | 45 | 4.41 | 1.34 | .227 |
| UT Tyler | .314 | .924 | 547 | 62 | 4.24 | 1.39 | .257 |
| Point Loma | .329 | .944 | 538 | 75 | 4.17 | 1.38 | .252 |
| Bentley | .332 | .973 | 532 | 96 | 4.75 | 1.53 | .280 |
| UIndy | .320 | .965 | 550 | 78 | 5.92 | 1.70 | .298 |
The final eight teams broken down
West Chester heads to Cary with a 44-10 record, winning 18 of its last 20. Those 18 wins have been over some impressive teams, including nationally ranked Millersville five times. Caleb Strawhecker (team-high .359 batting average), Austin Stalker (team-high 11 home runs) and Carter Rust (team-high 29 stolen bases) have been hot in the tournament, but so have role players like Tanner Donati, who has six hits in the tournament thus far, including a memorable grand slam against East Stroudsburg. Both Julian Costa (12-2, 2.63 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) and Kyle Lazer (8-1, 3.72 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) have been sharp in the circle as well.
What needs to be said about Tampa? The Spartans are looking for their 11th national championship and third in a row. They have yet to lose a tournament game this year, sitting at 46-8 and winner of their last nine of 10 games played in May. This is an elite pitching staff and Robert Satin and B.J. Bailey may be the two best pitchers in the entire field. The dynamic duo are each top 15 in DII in ERA and WHIP, and Satin is third in strikeout-to-walk ratio. If a team can figure out how to crack those two, they have to deal with one of the toughest bullpens in DII. That, and timely run scoring, is what makes Tampa so successful this time of year.
Catawba is now 47-11 and is heading to its fifth finals and third since 2019. No team has had a tougher road to Cary: The Indians defeated nationally ranked Belmont Abbey, Young Harris and Francis Marion to get here and all three were top 25 in KPI and NET. Despite going 0-for-2 in the super regional clinching win, Brandon Crabtree is scorching hot in the tournament thus far, with eight hits, 10 RBIs and homers in four-straight Southeast Region games. The pitching has held up, which is a huge bonus because the lineups in Cary are not as power-heavy as what the Indians just faced on the road to the finals.
Tampa won its 10th national championship in 2025, and on the other side of that was Central Missouri. The Mules, now 39-15, have reached Cary three years in a row, 22 times overall, and they have been national runners-up twice in the past five years. In short, it just doesn’t seem like a DII baseball finals without them. This was a very new-look team compared to years past, but Chase Wilcox is a familiar face and is leading the Mules’ charge with a .367 average, .989 OPS, five home runs, 43 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. Sawyer Allen has been sharp on the mound, tossing six shutout innings against Minnesota State in the regionals and a 1-run, complete game to open the super regionals over Augustana (SD).
The Patriots road back to Cary was quite impressive. UT Tyler, now 48-12, defeated the No. 1-ranked Colorado Mavericks, holding the Mavericks to its lowest scoring output of the season in the decisive Game 3, to win its second-straight South Central Region. It is also the second-straight year the Patriots had to go on the road and take down the No. 1 seed to advance. Unlike Tampa and Central Missouri, which are back again, the Patriots are loaded with experience from last year’s trip to Cary. Drew Schmidt is red hot with 14 hits in his last five games, and Tanner Hornback leads the team in hitting (.364) with 64 runs scored and 43 RBIs. The pitching staff has a few familiar faces and will be the decisive factor in keeping the Patriots in Cary longer than last year.
Point Loma is another DII baseball finals regular, now back for the third time in five years. The Sea Lions were a force for much of the season and simply have yet to relent. The Sea Lions are 49-11 and come in hot, winners of 11 of their last 12. This team can rake, with 75 total home runs, producing 8.96 runs per game. Most of those came off the bat of Tristan Moore (17), Hank Smith (10), Mason Cook and Owen May (nine each). The Sea Lions are dangerous as a six seed, not simply because of the potent lineup, but they also have a pair of top-shelf pitchers in Devin Norton (10-2, 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP) and Derek Silva (11-1, 3.41 ERA, 1.39 WHIP). The Sea Lions are loaded and could be a sneaky team to get to the finals.
What a wild run to the DII baseball finals for Bentley. Literally. The Falcons make it to Cary for the first time ever, thanks to a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth for the game-winning run in the decisive Game 3 of the East super regionals. The Falcons are a program-best 44-15 and every win is of historic proportions, and should they get one more, it will be the first East Region win in Cary in two years. The Falcons bring the heaviest of the boom sticks to Cary, leading the pack with 96 home runs, which is sixth-most in DII. They have four hitters — Stan DeMartinis III, Jared Bernardino, Brendan Sencaj and Nick Pappas — with at least 12 home runs and 59 RBIs. They will need it, because East Region pitching usually struggles in the cavernous outfields of Cary.
And that leaves the Greyhounds. UIndy, which has won six in a row over nationally ranked teams like Wayne State (MI), Illinois Springfield and Grand Valley State, is now 39-22. They were arguably one of the last teams to sneak into the bracket, and that is all these Greyhounds need in May: hope. They have reached four-straight Midwest super regionals and advanced to Cary in 2023, 2024 and now 2026. Where the Greyhounds hope this year is different will be winning a game in the finals, something they didn’t do in 2023 or 2024. It will be hard: On paper, the Greyhounds have the highest ERA, WHIP and batting average against facing some very stacked lineups. Still, Austin Bode (.404, 1.331, 82 runs scored, 19 home runs, 78 RBIs) leads an opportunistic lineup that isn’t afraid of a challenge. The question is: Can they hold off the No. 1 seed in Game 1?
