Staff report
Catawbaís baseball team officially received a bid to the Division II South Regional late Sunday night.
The Indians (40-16) are the No. 3 seed and will open play in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday.
The Indians join SAC teams Tusculum (40-13) and Carson-Newman (41-16) in the six-team field. SAC tournament champion Tusculum is seeded second, while Carson-Newman is fifth.
Host Tampa (38-9-1) is the No. 1 seed. Florida Tech (35-18-1), another team from Tampaís Sunshine Conference, is the No. 4 seed.
Stillman (26-24), tournament champion in the SIAC, is the No. 6 seed.
Forty-eight D-II teams compete at eight regional sites. Regional champions advance to double-elimination championship finals on May 24-31 at Sauget, Ill.
Three Conference Carolinas teams are in the South Atlantic Regional, which will be played at Mount Olive.
Mount Olive (49-5) is the No. 1 seed. Craig Beasley (West Rowan) is a reliever for the Trojans.
Belmont Abbey, whose starting lineup usually includes Patrick Atwell (South Rowan) and Seth Waller (West) is the No. 5 seed. The Crusaders are 40-20.
Erskine is the No. 6 seed. The Flying Fleet has a record off 44-11 after two recent losses to Catawba.
No. 2 Columbus State (39-15), No. 3 USC Aiken (43-13) and No. 4 North Georgia (37-19) are also in the South Atlantic field.