Caravel Wins DIAA Baseball State Championship for First Time since 2017

Caravel celebrates after winning the 2026 DIAA Baseball State Championship Game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti

The Caravel Buccaneers defeated the Caesar Rodney Riders, 2-1, on June 12, at Frawley Stadium in the 2026 DIAA Baseball State Championship Game.

WILMINGTON — Rider senior William Lorentz faced Caravel sophomore Jackson Gable in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of runners on base, the Riders’ down two and Caravel an out away from a state championship victory. Gable fired from the mound and Lorentz swung, lofting a hit down the first base line.

Caravel right fielder Jayden Brown fielded the ball down the line — as the Rider runner on second scored — and fired a throw into the cut-off man, first baseman Jakob Goldstein. Goldstein fielded the throw and looked toward third, seeing the Rider runner a couple feet down the baseline and rushing back to third. Goldstein didn’t hesitate and threw to senior Garrett Bohn near the bag. Bohn tagged the runner for the final out.

“I saw Jake just have the confidence to turn as the first baseman in the cut and just pop him. I mean it takes guts to make that throw and he made it,” head coach Kristin Caldwell said postgame.

The relay was one of many spectacular defensive plays in Caravel’s 2-1 victory over Caesar Rodney in the 2026 DIAA Baseball State Championship Game. 

The game started as a pitcher’s duel between Caesar Rodney southpaw Evan Fowler and Caravel starter Garrett Bohn. The two retired the opposing lineup in order through the first two innings and kept the game scoreless through the third. 

The Riders almost scored the game’s first run in the bottom half of the fourth, but Caravel center fielder Gavin Evans fielded a hit by Fowler and fired home, cutting down Lorentz at the plate. 

The Riders matched the defensive highlight with one of their own in the top fifth. 

Rider third baseman Shane Powell rushed toward the plate to field a bunt by Buccaneer junior Owen Groff. Powell caught the bunt for an out and fired to first base completing the double play and ending the Caravel threat. A double play turned by Caravel ended the fifth inning and sent both teams into the sixth inning without a score.

The Buccaneers started the top of the sixth with a pair of walks. A sacrifice fly from junior Matthew Rice moved the runner from second to third and Gable — the Caravel runner on first — stole second during the next at-bat which ended in an out. 

Junior backstop Hunter Skelton stepped to the plate next with two outs and both runners in scoring position. Skelton lined a base hit over the leaping try of the Rider shortstop and into left center, scoring the runner on third. Gable scored from second on the throw in breaking up the scoreless pitcher’s duel.

“I’d never been so happy more in my life,” Bohn said about watching Skelton’s hit. “I was really excited, didn’t do my job by going behind the bases and telling where the runner to run, but I was just too excited.”

Caesar Rodney put a pair of runners on in the bottom of the sixth, but Bohn pitched through the traffic and ended the threat with a strikeout, stranding the pair of runners on base. The senior right hander faced three batters in the seventh, before he ceded the mound to Gable in relief. Bohn finished the game pitching six and a third innings, allowing one run and striking out six.

“Just that we want to win the game. I had to change my approach and I did, and I just kept attacking,” Bohn said about his mindset pitching with runners on base. 

Gable got an out against the first batter he faced and the throw from Goldstein to Bohn at third earned Caravel its first championship title since 2017.

“Amazing,” Caldwell said. “It’s, I mean, better than, better than any other feeling tell you the truth.”

The Buccaneers finished the season with a 19-3 overall record in Caldwell’s fourth season at the helm. Caldwell is the first woman head coach to win a DIAA Baseball State Championship and it’s the first time Caravel has won both a softball and baseball state championship in the same season since 2011. 

Caldwell gives all the credit to her players, their worth ethic and team chemistry.

“This is a group that’s totally bought into working hard, you know, having the minimum days off and just grinding everyday,” Caldwell said. “They’re just good kids and it felt like the chemistry’s right. They hang out together, they do stuff before night games together, and so for them to give the ultimate buy-in and then do it, just feels really good.”