Staff report

Catawba has announced game times and ticket prices for the Division II Southeast Region Baseball Tournament that runs from May 14-17 at Thomasville’s Finch Field.

Ticket prices will be $12 per day for adults and $5 for children under 17.

College students of participating schools can also gain admission for $5 with a valid college I.D.

An all-tournament pass will be available for $32 for adults and $15 for children under 17 and college students with an I.D.

Thursday’s schedule

11 a.m. — No. 4 Georgia College vs. No. 3 North Georgia

3 p.m. — No. 5 Wingate vs. No. 2 Mount Olive

7 p.m. — No. 1 Catawba vs. No. 6 North Greenville

North Georgia and Georgia College will be meeting for the fifth time. They’ve split the first four.

Mount Olive swept Wingate in a high-scoring doubleheader in April.

Catawba and North Greenville have not met in baseball since 2009.

Catawba has a 4-1 edge in the all-time series.

North Greenville has two pitchers from Rowan County — East Rowan grad Caleb Henley and North Rowan grad Matt Laurens.

Laurens helped North Greenville, the No. 6 seed, win the Conference Carolinas tournament.

Laurens pitched four shutout innings and was the winning pitcher in relief in a 2-1 tournament win against Pfeiffer. Laurens allowed only one hit.

Laurens also pitched the ninth inning of a tournament win against high-powered Mount Olive.

North Greenville is coached by Landon Powell,  a 33-year-old who was playing Major League Baseball as recently as 2011.

Catawba is led offensively by catcher/outfielder Will Albertson, who has 25 homers, 87 RBIs and a .481 batting average in 53 games.

Albertson leads the nation in batting average.

Center fielder Blake Houston is batting .387 with 74 runs scored. Catcher/DH T.J. Wharton is batting .378 with 10 homers and 55 RBIs.

Leading the pitching staff are Craig Brooks, Shaefer Shepard and Ryan McClintock.

The hard-throwing Brooks is 9-1 with 143 strikeouts and a 1.60 ERA and will pitch on Thursday. He leads the nation by a wide margin in strikeouts.

Shepard is 9-3. McClintock has eight saves.