By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
 
HATTIESBURG – The hottest college baseball team in Mississippi is currently playing right here in the Hub City, but it's not the one that usually comes to mind.
 
William Carey University is enjoying one of its finest seasons in its storied history under veteran head coach Bobby Halford.
 
Since dropping two of three games March 10-11 in their opening series in Southern States Athletic Conference play, the Crusaders have reeled off 12 straight victories, and looking very much like a strong contender for a spot in the NAIA World Series.
 
Carey wasted no time taking care of business Tuesday afternoon at Milton Wheeler Field, smashing West Alabama 18-2 in game cut short on the seven-inning run rule. WCU improved its overall record to 28-6; the Tigers dropped to 15-18.
 
"When you have players who have been together now for three years, like some of these guys have, winning a couple of championships in our league, it breeds confidence," Halford said.
 
"Then we got some new guys coming in, and they've picked where some of the guys who departed left off. That's a positive for us, because they play together."
 
The Crusaders showed off the complete repertoire Tuesday in sweeping the season series with UWA. Carey won the earlier meeting 3-2 on February 14, the first win ever on the Tigers' campus at Livingston, Alabama.
 
Carey jumped all over the Tigers, scoring six runs in the first inning, three in the second, two in the third and seven more in the fourth before both teams began emptying their bench.
 
Although Carey's pitching has improved over the course of the season, it's been the offense that has propelled the Crusaders in their most recent surge.
 
Over the past 12 games, WCU has outscored its opponents 150-44. For the season, Carey is batting .344 as a team, seventh-best in NAIA, and the Crusaders' total of 383 runs (11.3 per game) is No. 4 in the NAIA rankings.
 
"Our top five are our biggest players," said senior outfielder Patrick Lee. "It's important to get on base, but it's always about producing, and sometimes you have to play some small ball. If R.J. doesn't get in then, I have to get on, and it just works down the line."
 
Carey did its stat sheet a big favor on Tuesday, and as usual it was the top of the batting order that did most of the damage.
 
"It's just a lot of credit to the guys around me," said junior first baseman Jake Lycette. "They make my job a whole lot easier. Pat, R.J., they're always on base, so it's really not that hard in the 3-hole."
 
The first four batters for the Crusaders, junior R.J. Stinson, Lee, Lycette and junior Preston Ratliff were a combined 9 for 12 batting and scored 12 of the Crusaders' 18 runs.
 
"We have a good balance right now in our order," said Halford. "We've got some guys who can run and we've got some guys with power. So we can do a little bit of everything.
 
"I felt really good about how we played today, with this wind coming in at about 20 miles an hour blowing straight in our faces. So we had to make some adjustments, and I thought we did that today. We hit some balls today that would have been out almost any other day."
 
A common thread for all four players is they are all upperclassmen and three have been in the program at one previous season. Only Ratliff, who transferred from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, is new this season.
 
"Experience is very important," said Stinson, who is in his fourth year with the program. "Having these guys around for the last three years, because they know what it's like to win here."
 
The top of the lineup wasted no time savaging Tiger sophomore left-hander Roe Ketchum, the first of six pitchers to take the mound for West Alabama.
 
After junior left-hander Dario Herrera pitched around a two-out single in the top of the first inning, Stinson led off the bottom of the frame with a walk and promptly scored when Lee smashed the first pitch he saw to the base of the fence in right-centerfield for a triple.
 
"It's kind of funny, though, because I told R.J. before his first at-bat, if you get on, I'm bunting first pitch," said Lee. "But I'm always looking to hit first-pitch. If it's a fastball and it's there, why not, why not take a hack at it."
 
After that, Ketchum lost command of the strike zone, he walked four of the next six batters he faced, and they all scored. One came in on a wild pitch and the final two on a throwing error in the infield, bringing the day to an early end for Ketchum (0-2).
 
For the game, the Tigers gave up 10 walks and committed four errors.
 
Halford said his first three batters, "have started every rally we've had this year, it seems like." And their stats for the season are a reflection of just how important they are to Carey's success.
 
Stinson leads the team with a .445 batting average, with 9 home runs, 12 doubles, 4 triples, 45 runs-batted-in and he leads the team with 19 stolen bases, in 21 attempts.
 
"I just try to be the key to the engine," said Stinson. "As the leadoff guy, I try to get on base and start something for the guys coming up behind me. All the guys 1 through 5 can swing it pretty good."
 
Lee, who was 3 for 3 against West Alabama, has a .426 average, and he leads the team in doubles (14), home runs (11) and RBIs (49).
 
Lycette has raised his average to .390, with 9 homers and 42 RBIs, and he has 14 steals in 15 tries, a rather high total for a first baseman. As a team, Carey doesn't steal as much as in the past, but they've only been thrown out seven times in 53 attempts.
 
"I think it's something they don't expect," said Lycette. "It's fun
 
Ratliff has been a big contributor on the mound as well as at the plate. He's batting .330, with 8 home runs and 36 RBIs, and he is 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA.
 
He was particularly effective in his most recent outing last week, this past Saturday at home in a 7-0 win over Middle Georgia State, pitching six innings, allowing just three hits, striking out eight and walking two. His effort earned him SSAC Pitcher of the Week honors this week.
 
But Tuesday's pitching star was Herrera (4-0), who went five innings, struck out eight, walked three and hit two batters. Herrera has become the midweek starter in recent weeks, an indication of the Crusaders' depth.
 
"Moreso than we've had in a long time," said Halford. "Coach (Eric) Ebers has done a good job with them. Some of the guys have been hurt, but it might be a blessing in disguise, because it might give them a little rest here in the middle of the season."
 
With Carey's No. 1 starter, senior A.J. Stinson, out with a minor injury the past couple of weeks, junior Andrew Shirah has stepped up and just about made himself the Crusaders' No. 1B starter along with Stinson.
 
"Recently, I've been in the first-game spot (for conference series), with A.J. being out," said Shirah. "So, I'm taking on that role until he gets back. I'm just trying to get a win every time I go out there.
 
Shirah transferred to Carey this season from Coastal Alabama Community College. Thus far, he's 5-1 in eight starts covering a team-high 43 1/3 innings, 44 strikeouts and 24 walks.
 
His ERA is a bit high at 5.40 – and the Crusaders have a 4.95 team ERA – but Shirah says that's a bit deceiving. Carey was involved in some high-scoring games earlier in the season and that inflated the team's ERA.
 
"A.J. is still our No. 1 guy," said Shirah. "What I love about this team is the way we've been able to turn it around. We gave a whole lot of runs early in the year, but we seem to have found ourselves and we're starting to click as a staff. We're hoping to keep that going."
 
Carey wasn't ranked in the NAIA preseason poll, but quickly entered the poll on March 8 at No. 21 and climbed to No. 20 in the third rankings of the season, on March 22. The next rankings are due out on Wednesday and the Crusaders should be significantly higher.
 
With their team playing at a remarkably high level right now, the fear is always present of peaking too soon, especially with the toughest part of the schedule still to come.
 
"We don't consider it peaking," said Shirah. "We want to play our best every game. So if we take that mentality into every game, we won't peak too early."
 
Halford, now in his 38th season at the Crusader helm, knows championships are won in May, not March or early April. And the conference schedule does get a lot tougher, beginning Thursday in an SSAC series at Faulkner.
 
"We'll start getting some of our guys back this weekend," Halford said. "That's going to be important as we start to face the top end of our league over the next few weeks."
 
The really big games are next week's games, after the Crusaders complete their non-conference schedule next Tuesday at home against Mississippi College, hosting Mobile April 15-16. Right now the Rams (24-6 overall) are tied for the SSAC lead with Carey at 10-2.
 
WCU will host the SSAC Tournament, beginning May 3, and the school is a strong candidate to host one of the 10 regionals for the NAIA Tournament, culminating in the NAIA World Series, which begins May 26 at Lewiston, Idaho.
 
"I think we have a significantly better team than last year," said Lee. "Everything's coming together, and we're finishing a lot better than we did last year we've just got to stay humble, and take each game one-by-one and keep going."