The opening two rounds of the 2026 DII baseball championship are in the books. That means every team has played... and one team is about to go home. Central Missouri and UIndy are set to play for their tournament lives at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
🏆⚾ Bracket, schedule, scores ⚾🏆
Before the first pitch was even thrown, the magic number from Cary was three. That is because Tampa — which made history last year by winning its 10th national championship, breaking a tie with SSC-rival Florida Southern for the most ever — is going for a three-peat. That would be a first in DII baseball history, as no team has ever won three in a row.
There were some other intriguing numbers to know from the first two days of championship baseball. While there are still all eight teams in the field, let's dive in, shall we?
The DII baseball finals: Numbers to know
0: Two No. 1, top-of-the-rotation arms came out sharp in Cary. UT Tyler's 6-foot-3 lefty, Dylan Blomquist, hurled eight innings of shutout ball, allowing seven hits and striking out two. It was his second shutout performance of the postseason, going nine scoreless with 10 strikeouts against Angelo State to advance to the super regionals. The other pitcher was Robert Satin. Part of Tampa's deadly duo atop the rotation, Satin handled Bentley's lineup through five innings, allowing just three hits while striking out one. He needed just 49 pitches to get through those five innings; had Tampa not already been up 10-0, he likely would have gone the distance.
2: Two lower seeds won in "upset" fashion; however, if you are among the last eight teams standing in all DII baseball, it isn't a monster upset. Every team is good here, which is why No. 6 Point Loma — which was seeded way too low for the depth this team has — toppled No. 3 Catawba and No. 5 UT Tyler took down Cary regular No. 4 Central Missouri 8-3.
3: Seven players tallied three hits, the most by players in a game in the opening days of Cary. UT Tyler's Kaston Mason (3-for-5, 1 RBI) got things started in the opening game of the DII baseball finals, while West Chester's Caleb Strawhecker (3-for-5, 2 RBIs) and Hunter Smith (3-for-4, 2 RBIs), as well as UIndy's Bret Perry (3-for-4, 1 RBI) added on in Friday's nightcap. Catawba's Logan Dyer (3-for-5) put up the trifecta in a losing effort, while Tampa's Brayden Woodburn (3-for-3, 4 runs scored, 2 RBIs) and Walker Vanecek (3-for-6, 2 RBIs) also put up three hits in the box score.
3-for-3: Point Loma has been to Cary in 2022, 2024 and now 2026. In each of those three seasons, the Sea Lions won their opening game. The 2022 season ended in the semifinals after downing their opponents by a total score of 19-4 in the first two rounds, while they were sent home with two-straight losses after that opening win in 2024. Now, the Sea Lions have Tampa on deck, with the Spartans awaiting the Sea Lions on June 1 at 6 p.m. ET.
7.75: The opening two days in Cary did not provide for much down-to-the-wire excitement. Each of the four games were won by an average of 7.75 runs. Three teams (West Chester, Point Loma and Tampa) piled up double-digit runs with Tampa winning its game by the widest margin of 11 runs. UT Tyler was the closest matchup of the opening round with its win over Central Missouri. That's quite the difference from last year, when three of the opening games were decided by four runs or less, and 2024's opening two days saw a 3.75 scoring margin in its four games.
8: Eight home runs were hit in the first two days. Cary was once a very tricky ballpark with its cavernous gaps and tricky winds and weather, but home runs seem to be on the uptick the past few seasons. While it didn't meet last year's 15 home runs (the Cary-era record for the first two days), there were still home runs aplenty, and big ones at that. Your monsters of mash were Brayton Bowen (UIndy), Carter Rust (West Chester), Connor Clark, Cole Ketzner (UT Tyler), Hank Smith, Mason Cook (Point Loma), Brendan Sencaj (Bentley) and Brayden Woodburn (Tampa).
8-3: The Mules lost its opening round game to UT Tyler by five runs. This is worth noting. The Mules are obviously no strangers to Cary, making it most recently in 2019, 2021, 2024, 2025, and now 2026. They won their opening game in 2019, 2021 and 2025 and made it to at least the semifinals and finished with a pair of national runners-up. However, in 2024, the Mules went "two and barbecue," upset in the opening round and then again in their second game. The Mules were upset in round one and now face No. 8 seed UIndy. If you follow patterns, this isn't a good one; however, UIndy is 0-5 in Cary since 2024.
11: Tampa won its 11th game in its past three trips to Cary. The Spartans are 11-2 in the DII baseball finals since 2024. They have sent quite the message in each of their past three opening games, beating UIndy 9-3 in 2024, Felician 20-3 in 2025 and Bentley 13-2 in Saturday's opening victory.
12: West Chester scored 12 runs in its opening round win over UIndy. Not to sound like a broken record, but we know the secret to containing the Golden Rams, but no one can seemingly do it. The Golden Rams are now 37-1 when scoring at least six runs. No surprise here: They have done so in every single 2026 DII baseball championship game they have played (and won) thus far.
55: Cary became the DII baseball finals home in 2009. According to , no team has more wins than the South Region during that span, with Tampa picking up the South's 55th win on Saturday. The South Region has won eight of the 15 national championships played in Cary. What may be more mind-boggling is only three regions have winning records in the Cary era. The Central Region is now 35-29 after the Mules' loss, and the Southeast region is now 32-30 with the Catawba loss. Of course, the Southeast, which for many of the teams is the closest to Cary, has become quite dominant in the past five seasons, picking up nearly half those wins while going 14-7 with a pair of national championships. The Midwest Region has the fewest wins with 13, one less than the East Region. The last time a Midwest team won in Cary was way back in 2019 when Ashland defeated the now-defunct New York Tech Bears 8-3.
7,181: The eight teams traveled more than 7,000 miles for a chance to dethrone Tampa. The furthest traveled, to no one's surprise, was Point Loma, coming 2,546 miles, albeit a journey the Sea Lions are quite accustomed to this time of year. The shortest trip was Catawba, coming from Salisbury, North Carolina, a mere 121 miles away. The others traveled:
- UT Tyler: 1,089
- Central Missouri: 1,029
- Bentley: 707
- Tampa: 669
- UIndy: 629
- West Chester: 394
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