JUSTIN SCALI

Head Coach

Justin Scali enters his seventh season as Head Baseball Coach after having spent the previous 12 seasons on staff as an Assistant Baseball Coach with the Lions. Scali is just the fourth different head coach in the last 30 years of the program's history with Athletic Director Jim Peeples having led the program for 15 years prior to Scali's head coaching career.

The 2022 season saw the Lions rack up big wins over No. 7 BSC and No. 3 LaGrange and qualify for the USA South Tournament once again. Carter Ballstadt delivered an historic season for the Lions, earning CoSIDA Academic All-America honors while also being named a Second Team All-American by ABCA/Rawlings.

The Lions delivered a solid campaign in 2021 that included a 21-16 overall record and an 8-6 mark in conference play. Piedmont advanced to the USA South Tournament First Round after posting its eighth straight winning season. Scali coached a pair of All-Americans as Carter Ballstadt and Sam Carpenter earned honors from D3baseball.com while Carpenter also picked up All-America honors from ABCA/Rawlings. For the first time in school history, the Lions earned a gold glove award as Carter Ballstadt took home the honor from ABCA/Rawlings as an outfielder.

The Piedmont baseball team posted a 10-7 record in 2020 during the COVID-19 shortened season finishing with a 7-2 mark in conference play. The Lions reeled off a six game win streak including a conference sweep at Brevard. During the short season, Piedmont had five athletes earn USA South weekly awards.

Scali led the Lions to a 29-10 record in 2019 and ranked as high as #10 nationally while earning USA South Coach of the Year honors. The Lions posted a 19-3 mark in league play earning the USA South Regular Season title & #1 seed in the conference tournament. Six Lions earned USA South All-Conference honors while four student-athletes earned ABCA/Rawlings All-Region honors.

Brady Ballstadt continued to dominate D-III baseball earning USA South Player of the Year for the second year in a row, CoSIDA Academic All-District and Academic All-American honors, D3baseball.com All-American, and ABCA/Rawlings All-Region honors. In 2019, Ballstadt broke the school career records for home runs, doubles, hits, runs and RBI.

The Lions posted an impressive 30-14 record in 2018, Scali's first 30-win season at the helm, along with a 14-4 record in conference. Piedmont swept Maryville to end the conference regular season and took the second seed entering the USA South Tournament. Piedmont won a fourth straight over Maryville to open the tournament with senior Buddy Green earning his fourth save over the Scots with those coming in four straight games.

The Lions made a run in the tournament knocking off Huntingdon and top-seeded Methodist, but dropped two extra inning contests to LaGrange and N.C. Wesleyan. Brady Ballstadt was named USA South Player of the Year while also earning D3baseball.com All-South Region Player of the Year, D3baseball.com First Team All-America honors and a spot on the 2018 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA DIII All-America team.

In 2017, the Lions baseball team posted a 24-20 record while going 7-11 in conference play. The Lions earned the #8 seed in the USA South tournament and made a stellar run through the tourney winning four-straight elimination games to make it to the tournament championship.

Piedmont lost the tournament opener to LaGrange but fought back to face the Panthers once more in the tournament title game. The Lions posted nine or more runs in each of their four tournament wins and had five athletes on the All-Tournament team (COLLIN GRANT, C; GRIFFIN OLSON, 1B; JUSTIN GROOVER, OF; ZACH LANGLEY, OF; JABIN SMITH, DH).

The Lions did defeat LaGrange during the regular season 7-5 at home, one of just four regular season losses for the Panthers. Piedmont also knocked off #1 Emory University with a 7-5 victory at Loudermilk Field on March 10.

With Peeples bringing his former player to Demorest in 2005 as then an assistant coach, Scali was a part of some of the most successful teams in program history including two seasons over 30 wins with the 2008 team taking 34 victories followed by 2011's 32. Both teams won the Great South Athletic Conference tournament, earned a spot in the national poll, and saw an appearance in the NCAA National Tournament come to fruition, the first two such trips in program history.

Spending his time primarily with the team's pitching staff, Scali has helped develop an ABCA and D3baseball.com All-American with four pitchers named conference Pitchers of the Year. In addition, 11 have been tabbed ABCA All-South Region, 17 All-Conference, and seven GSAC All-Freshman selections.

His pitchers have also received national recognition with two pitchers establishing new NCAA Division III single season appearance records in 2008 and again in 2011. In 2013, Scali helped pitcher Kevin Caldwell earn the program's first-ever Rawlings Gold Glove award.

Having spent nearly his entire collegiate coaching career at Piedmont, Scali also has experience at another Division III program spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Ohio Northern University. In addition, Scali served two summers as the pitching coach for the Lima Locos, a member of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate Baseball League.

Both the 2003 and 2004 Locos teams set franchise records for wins, and the 2004 team captured the regular season and tournament championships. During his time with the Locos, Scali mentored a future major leaguer in Craig Stammen who went on to pitch for the Washington Nationals, Cleveland Indians, and San Diego Padres.

Scali also has his own impressive career with the Methodist Monarchs as the team went 39-9-1 taking the #1 NCAA Division-III national ranking for eight consecutive weeks at one point during his senior season. Overall, the Monarchs went 122-52 (.701%) in his playing career as Methodist would later be announced by the NCAA as one of the 30 winningest programs in Division III from the decade of the 2000's.

A 2002 graduate of Methodist University (NC), Scali earned his bachelor's degree in Sports Management before later receiving his Master of Business Administration from Piedmont in 2005.

TREY PEARCE

Assistant Coach

Trey Pearce was promoted to associate head baseball coach in the fall of 2024 following his first season with the Lions. He joined Piedmont in the fall of 2023 after spending a year as a volunteer assistant at LaGrange College in 2022 and serving as an assistant coach at LaGrange High School in 2023.

In his first season with the Lions, Piedmont posted 25 wins including a 12-6 mark in conference play. A total of five Lions earned all-conference honors in the CCS while Piedmont had three All-Region honorees and a Gold Glove winner in senior Trace Cate.

His familiarity with the Piedmont program comes after his own playing career at LaGrange College from 2019-2021 which included two USA South Tournament Championships. During his athletic career, Pearce was twice named the USA South Defensive Player of the Year (2019 & 2021) and was a 2021 USA South West Division first-team selection.

The Panthers posted a 34-7 mark in USA South play during his career and totaled 68 wins over his three seasons (including the 2020 Covid-shortened year). Pearce appeared in 88 contests for the Panthers including 40 in 2019 where he posted 47 hits, 38 RBI and was walked 27 times. He totaled over 100 hits in his career (104) with a .325 career batting average.

As a volunteer assistant coach at LaGrange in 2022, the Panthers once again won the USA South Tournament and advanced all the way to the NCAA DIII World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Pearce served as an assistant baseball coach at LaGrange High School in the spring of 2023 working with the infielders and all hitters. LaGrange High School had a 31-10 record in 2023 finishing as the runners up in the 4A GHSA state championship.

Prior to attending LaGrange College, Pearce worked with the Greater Naples Little League team in Naples, Florida volunteering over 500 hours with the youth baseball teams. He also was a coach at the Mike Martin Baseball Camps in Tallahassee, Florida from May-July of 2018.

Pearce earned his bachelor's in sports management from LaGrange College in 2020 and his master of arts in teaching from LaGrange in 2021.

Trevor Wren

Assistant Coach

Trevor Wren was hired as assistant baseball coach in the fall of 2024 following his time at Northwestern State as director of player development. Wren remained on staff at Northwestern State after serving as a graduate assistant baseball coach from 2020-2022.

During his time at Northwestern State, Wren served as an outfield coach and assistant hitting coach, assisting in the breaking of the single-season home run record. While in Natchitoches, he oversaw fundraising efforts and community service opportunities for Demon baseball.

Wren spent a pair of seasons (2019-20) at Andrew College in Georgia, where he coached ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winner Brenton Phillips, working with the team's hitters and outfielders.

In his own playing career, Wren was a four-year letterman at Schreiner and served as team captain in 2017 & 2018. He posted a .311 career batting average while playing first base and also pitching. He was also a member of the 2018 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference All-Sportsmanship Team.

Outside of collegiate coaching, Wren has experience working as a Southeast region scout with Perfect Game USA, served as associate head coach with the USA Prime 13U National Team and was a facility director at Prostyle Baseball Academy.

Wren earned his bachelor's in sports management from Schreiner University in 2018 and his master of science with a concentration in sport administration from Northwestern State University in 2022.