Eighteen games into the season, the Catawba Valley Community College baseball team needed a wake up call.
Sporting a 9-9 record, CVCC third-year head baseball coach Marshall McDonald gathered his players together and emphasize to them what he saw.
“We lost a couple of tough games we shouldn’t have, and we told them it wasn’t acceptable,” McDonald said. “We were too good for this. They took it upon themselves and fixed it. It was pretty fun down the stretch. In early March, we locked in and realized we were one of the best teams in the league.”
The spark was reignited and the focus sharpened. The Red Hawks (43-16) would go on to win 34 of their next 41 games, including seven in a row to close the season on their way to claiming the Region 10/South Atlantic District championship in Burlington and clinching a third trip to Enid, Oklahoma for the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) World Series.
Along the way, the Catawba Valley baseball team broke numerous records, including wins (43) and home runs (69), and with a good showing in Oklahoma it has a chance to break even more.
“I think we always knew that we were talented. We were just very, very young,” McDonald said. “We thought it was going to take a little bit more time to get over that hump. They kind of took off and developed the attitude of realizing that it doesn’t matter how long it’s going to take, we’re still going to beat you.”
McDonald believes a big reason for the turnaround is the camaraderie his players have with each other.
“They a really, really close,” he said. “This is one of the closest teams I’ve ever had. They love each other. We told them that — whether they like it or not — teams that love each other and want to be around each other and want to hang out with each other are generally more successful in college baseball than teams that just do their job and go home. They genuinely like to be at the ballpark with each other than they would at their apartments.”
This year’s trip to Oklahoma is special for McDonald, who never made the trip as an assistant coach in 2015 because of a prior playing commitment.
“I’m glad to finally be out here,” said McDonald, who was named the 2025 South Atlantic District Coach of the Year. “I was actually texting (former CVCC head coach) Paul Rozzelle and watching the (World Series) videos from 2015 because I couldn’t sleep. I was connecting all the dots. For the past 10 years, all I’ve had is pictures and videos. Being here is kind of fun.”
The Red Hawks enter this year’s World Series at the No. 11 seed, and they face a No. 6 East Central (Miss.) team in the first round on Saturday (1 CT/2 ET).
“They are big, strong and talented like we are,” McDonald said of East Central. “I think it’s going to be a fun match up. They’ve got some good arms. They play in a good league with Pearl River. They lost two out of three to Pearl River, which gave Pearl River the region championship. Any time you get an at-large seed, you’ve got some talent. I think it’s going to be a good match up. East Central is a very solid baseball team.”
Being the 11 seed in a 12-team tournament is something that does not bother McDonald.
“The seed out here doesn’t matter,” he said. “All bets are off. We are one of the final 12 teams in the country. We are happy to be here. Would you like to be seeded higher? Yeah, but that’s out of our control.”
As for what McDonald will tell his CVCC baseball players before they take the field on Saturday in the first round of the NJCAA World Series, he plans to keep their eyes focused on the mission — winning the program’s first national title.
“Our goal was to get here (to Oklahoma) because it is an extreme goal in itself,” he said. “You can’t overlook that. We celebrate it. That’s why we talk about it. Winning the Region and District is our goal every year, but now the goal has changed. It’s not just to get here. We’ve got one more tournament to win. Regardless of what happens, we’re going home and it’s the end of the season. You might as well try to win it all. That’s where we’re going to try to get their mind at.”