Staff report

TIGERVILLE, SC — Luke Spiva went 4-for-4, homered and made a spectacular diving catch, but Catawba’s baseball team still came up short on Friday in the Southeast Regional.

Top-seeded Catawba was outscored 12-8 by fourth-seeded host North Greenville in a second-round game in the double-elimination tournament.

Catawba (33-10) came back from 4-0 and 6-2 deficits to take the lead against the Crusaders, but couldn’t hold it.

With its season on the line, Catawba is scheduled to play at noon today. The opponent likely will be second-seeded Mount Olive, which trailed Wingate 12-4 in the sixth inning of a game that couldn’t be completed late Friday due to weather. Wingate-Mount Olive is set to resume at 10 this morning.

If Catawba can get past its noon game (Greg Brown is the probable starting pitcher), the Indians would play again at 8 on Saturday night.

North Greenville (34-12) scored four runs in the first inning against Catawba starting pitcher Hunter Shepherd.

Catawba got on the board in the top of the third inning on back-to-back homers by Spiva and Shepherd, but North Greenville got those runs right back in the bottom half.

The Indians scored twice in the fourth and tied the game in the fifth on RBI singles by Dylan Wilkinson and Jeremy Simpson. Wilkinson was thrown out at the plate, trying to tag up on a flyball, to end the fifth.

Catawba took its only lead in the seventh at 7-6 when Simpson doubled and Zack Miller singled him home.

The Indians carried that lead to the bottom of the eighth, but that half-inning proved disastrous. The Crusadaders put together a six-run inning.

Robbie Cowie took the loss.

Catawba scored one run in the ninth and got the tying run to the plate before the Crusaders secured the final out.

Simpson had three of Catawba’s 14 hits, while Shepherd had two.

Josh Senter hit two of North Greenville’s three homers.

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Columbus State bounced back from a lopsided loss to Catawba and eliminated UNC Pembroke in Friday’s early game.