By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
 
HATTIESBURG – If William Carey University baseball is to win a third consecutive Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament championship, the Crusaders will have to do it the hard way.
 
Blue Mountain Christian, the tournament's eighth-seeded team, surprised the Crusaders with an 8-7 victory in 11 innings, after Carey had rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie it up.
 
William Carey, the SSAC regular-season champions, dropped to 40-8 overall and will face Middle Georgia State at 1 p.m. Thursday in an elimination game. BMC (26-23) battles Loyola-New Orleans at 7 p.m. Thursday in the winner's bracket.
 
"I'm disappointed," said Carey coach Bobby Halford. "But give them credit. We kept coming back and coming back, but we left too many opportunities out there."
 
Halford rolled the dice with his pitching, electing to send out junior right-hander Connor Adams to start against the Toppers.
 
"We've got to throw four people for this tournament," said Halford. "The guys that we had been throwing had short rest for two straight weeks, so we didn't want to put those guys right back out there.
 
"So we figured, OK, (Adams) is going to have to throw Saturday or (Wednesday). So that was our thinking on that."
 
That decision looked like a winner for the first three innings.
 
Adams got out of a two-out jam in the top of the first inning. Senior Austin Beech drew a walk junior Hayden Arant sent him to third with a single to rightfield. But junior centerfielder R.J. Stinson ran down a long fly ball for the third out of the inning.
 
Carey went right to work in the bottom of the inning against Topper junior right-hander Matthew Koch.
 
With one out, senior Bobby Lada smoked a deep fly to right-centerfield and motored all the way to third. A pair of walks loaded the bases, and the Crusaders appeared poised for their typical fast start.
 
But junior Preston Ratliff grounded into an inning-ending double play, a bad sign for Carey. Still, the Crusaders jumped in front with three runs in the bottom of the second.
 
Junior Billy Garrity drew a leadoff walk and junior Brady Wilson singled to move Garrity to third. Koch got a pair of strikeouts, but Stinson hit a sharp grounder up the middle that caromed off the bag at second base to drive in a run.
 
Lada hit a high popup that the Toppers lost in the lights and dropped untouched for a single and another run, with Stinson taking third. Junior Jake Lysette beat out a slow roller between the mound and first base to drive in Stinson, but Lada was thrown out trying to score from second.
 
Adams breezed through the second and third innings, including a five-pitch top of the third, but lost command of the strike zone in the fourth, when the Toppers scored five runs on just one hit, but four walks and a key error.
 
"He was a groundball away from getting out of it," Halford said. "Then he gave in to it and didn't throw very well. I think he had four walks in row, something like that. And defensively, we didn't play very well and made some mistakes when we had chances to get out of it."
 
Adams walked the leadoff batter in the inning, Arant, who wound up on third after a double-play ball from Wilson at third skipped under the glove of second baseman Rigoberto Hernandez into rightfield, the first of three costly errors for Carey.
 
Three consecutive walks drove in two runs and brought Adams' night to an end. Freshman right-hander Lane Jarreau came on in relief, and quickly got a strikeout.
 
But junior Gavin Coles smacked a two-run single to right, sending the runner to third, and the fifth run of the inning came in when senior Reiley Tate beat a relay from second on a double-play attempt.
 
The two-run hit, though, was about the only mistake Jarreau made for the Crusaders. He got a strikeout to get out of the fourth, and did not allow a hit or a walk in the next four innings, striking out four.
 
"I just came out there and my mindset was to get outs and save my team pitching any way I can as quickly as possible," said Jarreau. "My mentality was to get locked in before the game, and I thought I threw the ball pretty well."
 
But that was about the same time that Koch found his groove for Blue Mountain. Beginning in the third inning, he retired 15 of the next 18 batters he faced.
 
A pair of two-out walks, in the third and fifth, and a one-out single in the seventh were all the offense the Crusaders could muster against Koch until the eighth.
 
"He competed," said Garrity. "I think that we pressed a little bit, because we're supposed to be the top dog coming in here against the No. 8 team. Nothing against them; they played great and they didn't quit."
 
Jarreau matched Koch zero for zero until the top of the eighth, when BMC picked up an unearned run. Arant, leading off, reached second on a throwing error in the infield, took third on a slow roller to shortstop and scored on a sacrifice fly.
 
"My out pitch tonight was my change-up," said Jarreau. "I think I threw it about 30 percent of the time, and they didn't get a hit off of it.
 
"The team has been relying on me all year in tough situations, so I think I let them down a little giving up those three runs. But I just told myself, I'm going to go back, pick my team up and not give up another run."
 
Carey appeared to have something brewing in the bottom of the eighth on a controversial call at second base.
 
Senior Patrick Lee came off the bench to lead off the inning. The Crusaders' regular centerfielder, Lee has been hampered by a hamstring injury the past week and did not start. Halford said Lee is day-to-day.
 
"We didn't want to use unless we had to," Halford said. "He's one of our best players, one of our top leaders, and we missed him out there. He was chomping at the bit wanting to get out there, to get an at-bat, so we thought, 'let's try it and see what happens.'
 
"But we really don't want to play him in this tournament, because we still have the regional coming up. He tweaked against these guys up there a couple of weeks ago. So we're kind of waiting to see, and he wanted to hit, so we decided to let him get a chance to swing.
 
Lee came through with a single through the hole between third base and shortstop. But Ratliff followed by hitting a double-play ball to the bag at second. Lee was retired on the force, but as he came into the bag, the ball was knocked loose and Ratliff ended up at first.
 
But not for long. Lee was ruled to have not slid into the base and Ratliff was called out on runner interference. Carey fans protested loudly, but Halford said it was the correct call.
 
Koch finished his night with a flourish, getting a strikeout to end the inning. He finished with 132 pitches, 10 strikeouts, four walks seven hits and three runs, all earned.
 
Jarreau gave way to junior right-hander John Snyder in the ninth, and Toppers junior Chris Hoing picked the right moment with one out to hit his first career home run over the leftfield fence, and that run would loom big in the bottom of the inning.
 
Junior right-hander Shaine O'Keefe came on in the ninth for Blue Mountain, and was immediately greeted by a single and an error on a ball up the middle of the bat of Hernandez, followed by a high throw to first.
 
A wild pitch sent Hernandez to third and a sharp grounder to shortstop by junior Brayden Coffey got Hernandez home. Stinson flied to center, and O'Keefe appeared to have the win nailed down when Lada swung through an 0-2 curveball in the first.
 
But the ball skipped under the glove of the catcher, and given new life, the Crusaders responded.
 
Lysette singled to rightfield to send Lada to third, then back-to-back walks scored a run. Garrity followed by stroking a 1-2 pitch to the gap in right-centerfield for a two-run single and tie game.
 
"I just refused to strike out," said Garrity. "I wanted to be short on my swing. Coaches told me that we needed to stop having such long swings, the ball's not flying tonight and to go up the middle. I got the pitch I could do it with."
 
Blue Mountain brought in senior Josh Smith, a side-arming left-hander, and he got the third out of the inning to send it to extra innings.
 
Beech hit a leadoff double off Snyder to open the 10th inning, and Halford sent for Ratliff. After a four-pitch walk, Ratliff mowed down the Toppers on three strikeouts.
 
Carey got a runner to third in the bottom of the inning, but couldn't get the run home, and BMC won it in the top of the 11th.
 
Junior Zack Koon beat out an infield single to open the inning, he took second on a walk, went to third on a single by Coles and scored on a sacrifice fly from Tate.
 
Ratliff got out of further trouble with a pair of strikeouts, sandwiched around an intentional walk. Ratliff (4-3) allowed just two hits and struck out five in two innings.
 
The Crusaders got a one-out walk, but Smith (3-2) finished with two strikeouts to finally ice the victory.
 
Although they're in a tough spot, Carey has its top three pitchers lined up for a comeback, beginning with junior right-hander Andrew Shirah on Thursday.
 
"Our backs are against the wall now," said Garrity. "We've just got to play baseball like we've done all year, forget this game happened and bounce back tomorrow and play a team we've already beaten."
 
Carey Baseball Linescore
Wednesday at Milton Wheeler Field
SSAC Tournament First Round
Blue Mountain 8, William Carey 7, 11 innings
BMC    000      500      011      01        –          8          7          2
WCU    030      000      004      00        –          7          10        3
BLUE MOUNTAIN (26-23): Gavin Coles 2 1B; Austin Beech 2B; Hayden Arant 1B; Zack Coon 2 1B; Chris Hoing HR (solo). WP – Josh Smith (3-2). Also pitching – Matthew Koch (starter), 10 Ks; Shaine O'Keefe.
WILLIAM CAREY (40-8): R.J. Stinson 2 1B; Bobby Lada 3B, 1B; Jake Lycette 2 1B; Patrick Lee 1B; Billy Garrity 1B; Brady Wilson 1B; Rigoberto Hernandez 1B. LP – Preston Ratliff (4-3). Also pitching – Connor Adams (starter); Lane Jarreau.