There was just one brand-new, never-before champion topped within the 2025 DII spring season. That would lead you to imagine, with so many acquainted faces, that it was a relatively drab finale to the 2024-25 season. It was hardly that: data had been damaged, thrilling finishes occurred on the wire time and again, and new match rivalries had been fashioned.
As we head into the summer season and prepared for the beginning of a brand new NCAA DII 12 months, let’s take a fast look again on the spring that was.
🏆 RECAPS: Baseball; Golf M | W; LAX M | W; Rowing; Softball; Tennis M | W; T&F M | W
A basic from Cary
Tampa wins the 2025 DII baseball championship
No. 1 Tampa and No. 2 Central Missouri confronted off within the first-ever three-game championship collection. Nevertheless, regardless of the highest two seeds dealing with off for the nationwide title, it was something however predictable. Actually, it could have been essentially the most thrilling DII baseball championship finals in historical past, or a minimum of the 2000s. A document was damaged within the fifth inning of the primary recreation, and the week closed with yet one more record-setting efficiency. Each group, minus Felician, battled on each pitch, and it appeared like almost each recreation got here all the way down to the ultimate pitch.
5 groups made their finals debut, permitting us to count on the surprising. Lenoir-Rhyne was a type of first timers, and whereas the Bears had been in Cary, they set the single-season residence run document for DII, and their star leadoff hitter, Mackenzie Wainwright, broke the single-season hits document together with his 121st hit on a four-hit day. East Stroudsburg was the primary group to ship somebody residence, and it got here on a walk-off grand slam, which is believed to be the primary in Cary’s 15 years as host of the finals. Tampa erupted for 20 runs, setting the Cary document for many runs scored within the finals. Each of the semifinal matchups, Tampa vs. Northwest Nazarene and Central Missouri vs. Lenoir-Rhyne, went the space, displaying simply how evenly matched these groups all had been.
It was additionally the primary time the finals featured a three-game championship collection, and good factor they did because it went the space with three memorable video games. Central Missouri and Tampa placed on a present. The Mules used a four-run eighth inning to return from behind and win Recreation 1 9-8, whereas Tampa needed to come again a number of instances to win Recreation 2 10-8. Finally, it was the Spartans, who raked 17 residence runs within the cavernous confines of the USA Baseball Nationwide Coaching Advanced that walked away with the nationwide championship — a DII document tenth all time.
It was a Spartan Spring
2025 DII ladies’s lacrosse: championship recap
The 2024-25 season concluded my tenth 12 months protecting DII sports activities. What Tampa did this spring was merely essentially the most dominant efficiency by a single program in a single season throughout that decade of watching DII sports activities. The Spartans ladies’s lacrosse group completely dominated Adelphi to win their second-straight nationwide championship. On the boys’s aspect, the lacrosse group misplaced within the championship recreation by a mere aim. It did not cease there, because the softball group not solely received their first South Area title, however made all of it the way in which to the championship collection, the place they completed nationwide runner-up. And naturally, there was baseball, which as soon as once more made it to Cary, the place they repeated as nationwide champions. It won’t be onerous to attract recruits after a season like that.
A repeat champion almost three many years within the making
I do not wish to name it a no brainer, however the UT Tyler Patriots appeared like they had been going to repeat proper off the bat — a lot so, we laid out a path to why they might method again in February. The Patriots had been dominant in each side of the sport — that they had a prime 5 batting common and OPS, a prime 5 ERA and WHIP, and had been No. 2 in fielding share. They reeled off 62 wins and did not permit a run within the semifinals or championship collection, fueling the Patriots to develop into the primary repeat nationwide champion of the 2000s. Do not be shocked if a 3rd is on the way in which in 2026.
9 is simply wonderful
2025 DII males’s lacrosse: championship recap
Ho hum, 2025 noticed one other DII males’s lacrosse nationwide championship for the Adelphi Panthers. The Panthers are the benchmark for the game — now with 9 nationwide championships in DII males’s lacrosse. Winners of the 2024 championship as nicely, it was the third time in program historical past that Adelphi went back-to-back. This is the massive what if: DII males’s lacrosse went away from 1982-1992. Adelphi received the final title earlier than the game quickly folded in 1981 after which received the primary nationwide championship when it restarted in 1993. What number of extra titles would Adelphi have? Whereas that’s an unanswerable query, what might be answered is sure, Adelphi might be searching for No. 3 in a row in 2026.
Thrilling finishes and acquainted faces
West Florida wins the DII males’s golf championship
West Florida received its third title in DII males’s golf historical past, with its first since 2008 coming in thrilling style. The Argos walked away victorious in a playoff gap, the primary DII males’s golf title determined by a playoff since 2013.
It wasn’t as shut on the ladies’s golf aspect as DBU rose victorious over Central Missouri 4-1. The Patriots have develop into the DII ladies’s golf energy of the post-pandemic period, profitable three of the 5 championships (2021, 2023, 2025) since that canceled 2020 season.
There could also be a brand new dynasty forming in Titletown USA. Valdosta State received its second consecutive DII males’s tennis title and fourth in program historical past. Head coach John Hansen has received all 4 titles and never solely celebrated No. 4 however was enshrined within the GSC Corridor of Fame every week later.
Barry received the DII ladies’s golf championship as a result of, nicely, as a result of that’s what Barry does. The Bucs have received seven of the final eight nationwide championships, and the one 12 months they did not win? That was 2024, after they completed as nationwide runners-up. That ninth title provides Barry essentially the most all time (by a technicality. Armstrong State has 10, however two had been vacated by the NCAA).
Barry wins the 2025 DII ladies’s tennis championship
Talking of not realizing how you can lose, Pittsburg State received its fourth DII males’s monitor and area title in a row. On the flip aspect, West Texas A&M completed as nationwide runners-up for the fifth 12 months in a row. The Gorillas received seven particular person championships in a dominating efficiency.
Pittsburg State wins the 2025 DII males’s out of doors monitor & area championship
Head coach Jerry Baltes has plenty of titles, does not he? Grand Valley State received the DII ladies’s out of doors monitor and area title, giving Baltes his third ladies’s out of doors title to go together with one males’s out of doors, one males’s indoor, three ladies’s indoor, and 9 mixed males’s and girls’s cross nation titles.
In a spring stuffed with acquainted faces, Embry-Riddle shone as a primary timer, profitable the DII rowing nationwide championship over Humboldt. It was the primary DII nationwide championship in any sport for the Eagles. ERAU was the primary college from the South Area to win since 2016, which was the second of two-straight titles for fellow-SSC foe Barry.
