Coaching Highlights at Piedmont (2017-Present)
- 1 CCS Tournament Championship (2023)
- 1 USA South Regular Season Championship (2019)
- 1 USA South Coach of the Year (2019)
- 1 D3baseball.com All-South Region Player of the Year (Brady Ballstadt - 2018)
- 1 D3baseball.com All-South Region Pitcher of the Year (Zeke Swartz - 2025)
- 2 USA South Players of the Year (Brady Ballstadt - 2018, 2019)
- 1 CCS Pitcher of the Year (Zeke Swartz - 2025)
- 1 CCS Rookie of the Year (Ben Connelly - 2025)
- 3 ABCA/Rawlings All-Americans (Carter Ballstadt - 2022); (Sam Carpenter - 2021); (Brady Ballstadt - 2018)
- 2 ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Winners (Carter Ballstadt - 2022); (Trace Cate - 2024)
- 5 D3baseball.com All-Americans (Carter Ballstadt, Sam Carpenter - 2021); (Brady Ballstadt - 2018, 2019); (Zeke Swartz - 2025)
- 4 CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-America Selections (Carter Ballstadt - 2022, 2023); (Brady Ballstadt - 2019); Justin Groover - 2018)
- 8 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Awards
- 11 D3baseball.com All-Region Selections
- 16 CCS All-Conference Honorees
- 20 CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-District Selections
- 18 ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Selections
- 20 USA South All-Conference Honorees
- 29 wins over top-25 opponents
- Highest national ranking - #10, 2019 (ABCA)
Collegiate Career at Methodist University (1999-2002)
Three NCAA D-III Regional Appearances (1999, 2001, 2002)
Three Conference Championships (1999, 2001, 2002)
Monarchs were ranked #1 in NCAA D-III for eight consecutive weeks during senior season (2002)
2002 team set runs, hits, RBI, doubles, sac-fly, & assists team season records
Team record of 122-52 (.701%) during his career
Methodist baseball named one of the 30 winningest programs in D-III from the 2000's
Justin Scali enters his 10th season as Head Baseball Coach in the fall of 2025 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.
Zeke Swartz highlighted the 2025 season becoming the first-ever first team All-American (D3baseball) as well as an ABCA/Rawlings All-American, D3baseball Region Pitcher of the Year and CCS Pitcher of the Year. Ben Connelly earned CCS Rookie of the Year for the Lions as well.
In 2024, the Lions saw a second ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove make its way to Demorest following Trace Cate's outstanding season. The outfielder from Marietta, Georgia spent his time in right field for the Lions posting 128 putouts without an error across 42 games in 2024.
The Lions book ended the 2023 season with celebrations, picking up three wins over top-25 opponents in February while concluding the year by taking the inaugural Collegiate Conference of the South Tournament Title. Piedmont began the season taking 2-of-3 from No. 20 California Lutheran before returning home to defeat then No. 16 and eventual national champions Lynchburg on Feb. 18. Piedmont ended the 2023 season winning the CCS Tournament Title, winning 4-of-5 games, all by three runs or less. Carter Ballstadt closed out his incredible career, breaking the program record for home runs and then taking the saves record in the team's 3-2 win in the CCS Tournament Championship game against Maryville.
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 a 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. 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 and Cleveland Indians.
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.
Scali's Year-by-Year Coaching Record (2017-Present)
| Season |
Record |
Pct. |
School Name |
| 2025 |
27-15 |
.642 |
Piedmont |
| 2024 |
25-17 |
.595 |
Piedmont |
| 2023 |
26-17 |
.605 |
Piedmont |
| 2022 |
18-22-1 |
.451 |
Piedmont |
| 2021 |
21-16 |
.568 |
Piedmont |
| 2020* |
10-7 |
.588 |
Piedmont |
| 2019 |
29-10 |
.744 |
Piedmont |
| 2018 |
30-14 |
.682 |
Piedmont |
| 2017 |
24-20 |
.545 |
Piedmont |
| Totals |
210-138-1 |
.603 |
1 School |
*2020 season shortened due to COVID-19
Scali's Coaching Record by School (2017-Present)
| School Name |
Seasons |
Record |
Winning Pct. |
| Piedmont (2017-Present) |
9 |
210-138-1 |
.603 |
Last updated 6/25
