Staff report

SALISBURY — Catawba’s surging baseball team edged Wingate on Friday to clinch the South Atlantic Conference championship and added a Saturday Senior Day sweep of the Bulldogs for good measure.

It’s the 15th SAC regular-season championship for Catawba and the 13th for head coach Jim Gantt.

Ranked 21st in Division II, Catawba (37-12, 24-6) finished four games ahead of second-place Coker.

Dylan Driver and Bo Rusher had the RBIs for the Indians in a 2-1 win on Friday, with Driver driving in what proved to be the decisive run in the seventh with an infield hit.

Ty Hubbard and Levi Perrell had two hits each.

Austin Fine threw six strong innings. Mason Gwyn (5-1) was the winner in relief. Hayden Simmerson notched his sixth save.

• Catawba led all the way and beat Wingate 11-5 in Saturday’s opener.

Payne Stolsworth (10-2) pitched into the eighth inning.

Rusher had three hits, while Perrell, Driver, Logan Rogers and Cole Hales had two each. Hubbard and Cooper Bryson had two RBIs.

• Catawba won 7-6 in Saturday’s seven-inning nightcap, coming back from a 6-1 deficit.

Catawba got back in the game with a four-run sixth and won it with two in the seventh. Sam Hunter’s bases-loaded walk provided the decisive run.

Hunter drove in three. Rusher knocked in two. Driver had two hits.

Simmerson (3-2) was the winning pitcher.