By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
 
HATTIESBURG – It was a shame for William Carey that A.J. Stinson couldn't pitch both games Sunday in the Southern States Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament.
 
Stinson turned in an ironman performance for the Crusaders in the tournament semifinal round, pitching into the eighth inning in a 5-1 victory over Loyola-New Orleans.
 
But Carey didn't have enough pitching left to hold off the relentless bats of Mobile in the championship game Sunday night, as the Rams defeated the Crusaders 22-10 in a seven-inning run-rule triumph that was truly merciful.
 
After two consecutive seasons as SSAC champs, No. 12 (NAIA) Carey (44-9) watched ninth-ranked Mobile (35-13) celebrate its title on the mound at Milton Wheeler Field. Both teams will play again in the NAIA regionals beginning next Monday, WCU as hosts.
 
"The big thing was we ran out of arms," said Carey coach Bobby Halford. "We knew we didn't want to hurt anybody with the regional coming up. And give (Mobile) credit; they played really well.
 
"We know we're one of the best teams in the country, we're probably going to be a No. 1 seed at our own place."
 
Several Crusader regulars played sparingly in the tournament, including senior centerfield Patrick Lee, one of the team's top hitters. Also out for much of the week was sophomore catcher Brady Logan and junior third baseman Brady Wilson.
 
"The biggest thing was getting out of this game in one piece," said Halford. "We're ready to go for next week, and hopefully we'll have everybody back."
 
Because of weather concerns Friday and Saturday, the winner-take-all semifinal games were pushed back to Sunday, with Mobile holding off Faulkner 6-5 to punch its ticket to the final.
 
Halford sent one of his three aces to the mound to get the Crusaders into the championship game, and the former Hattiesburg High standout delivered, despite pitching three innings and throwing 32 pitches on Friday against Blue Mountain before heavy rain cut his day short.
 
"I felt great," said Stinson. "At first I was sore, but I just got locked in and turned it on."
 
Stinson turned in a performance for the books against Loyola (31-22). He scattered seven hits, but only one run, struck out eight, and walked six, resulting in plenty of traffic on the basepaths to work past.
 
"The fastball and the change-up were my two best pitches," Stinson said. "I felt like I could spot the change-up for strikes. I threw a couple off-speed, and it was OK."
 
The Crusaders helped him out early by jumping out to a 4-0 lead thanks to two home runs from senior Bobby Lada.
 
Playing as the visitors, Carey took a 1-0 lead with one out in the top of the first inning, when Lada smoked a 1-2 fastball from Loyola junior left-hander Stephen Still over the leftfield fence.
 
Lada made the most of the move to the No. 2 spot in the batting order for this tournament, in place of injured senior Patrick Lee. Lada was 13 of 30 for the tournament (.433), with five home runs and 12 runs-batted-in.
 
"It's something like that," said Lada to the suggestion that the baseball might look like a beach ball the way he's seeing the ball when he's at the plate.
 
"Every game out here, they all matter, throughout the whole tournament. But today was the most important, so I felt like I needed to show up the most."
 
Lada made it 4-0 with his very next swing of the bat in the top of the second. Junior Brayden Coffey led off with a single to rightfield, and after Still got a pair of strikeouts, junior R.J. Stinson singled into left, then Lada crushed the next pitch way over the leftfield fence.
 
Still (8-3) pitched 3-2/3 innings for the Wolfpack, allowing seven hits, striking out five and walking two. Sophomore right-hander Brady Bowen did a nice job in relief for Loyola, allowing just one run on three hits in 5-1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
 
The Wolfpack cut into the lead with a run in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, senior Christopher Bohrer single, took second on a slow roller to first base and scored on a single by sophomore Jake Mills, who finished with three singles for Loyola.
 
But Stinson (6-2) avoided further damage in that inning, and the rest of his three-plus innings of work. Loyola got runners to second and third in the seventh with one out, but Stinson got a strikeout and a pop foul to get out of trouble.
 
"A.J. played super," said Halford. "He did what we needed him to do. The rain hurt us, because he started a game, then had to come back. But I'm proud of these guys. Hopefully, we'll be doing what (Mobile) is doing right now."
 
Despite sitting on 141 pitches after the seventh inning, Stinson went back out for the eighth, which amounted to an encore, leaving after throwing 149 pitches for the game with one out and runners on after a walk and a single.
 
"I told them I wanted to go back out there," said Stinson. "My mentality was that I just wanted the ball. I think this game is something that's going to keep me focused for the regional."
 
Freshman right-hander Lane Jarreau was brought on for a five-out save opportunity, and while he got the job done, it took him 34 pitches to do it. And that would come back to bite Carey in the second game.
 
"This tournament was a great experience," said junior Jake Lycette. "We didn't do what we wanted to do, which was to win it.
 
"Our backs were against the wall when we came out here today. That first game against Loyola was the most important. You want to win that game just to get to the championship game and find a way to win that."
 
Things did not start off well for the Crusaders against Mobile, as they committed three errors in the top of the first inning.
 
But junior right-hander Connor Adams didn't allow a run, thanks to a heads-up double play by Coffey, who backed up a double-play relay that got past first base and recorded the out when the runner overran the bag.
 
"I don't know; maybe we had trouble getting back up mentally," said Lada. "But we learned from this game that we just need to forget it and get ready for the regionals."
 
And the Crusaders quickly went to work in the first inning against Rams sophomore lefty Tyler Cruse. Lada hit his fifth homer of the tournament over the wall in left-centerfield with one out, and Carey tacked on three more runs in the inning.
 
Lycette singled and took second on a two-out walk to junior Rigoberto Hernandez, bringing a quick close to Cruse's night.
 
Lycette scored on a throwing error in the infield off the bat of junior Billy Garrity, and Coffey smacked the next pitch into the rightfield corner for a two-run triple.
 
Mobile freshman right-hander Jacob Davis overcame his shaky start and went the rest of the way for the Rams. Carey roughed him up some, but it didn't matter, because he began getting more offense than he knew what to do with, beginning in the top of the second.
 
Adams got a strikeout to open the inning, but junior J.T. Lastorka blasted home run well into the trees behind leftfield, and the feast was on for Mobile.
 
Three consecutive singles resulted in a run-scoring single into leftfield by leadoff hitter Tucker Musgrove. It looked like Adams might get out of it, inducing a groundball from junior Landon Moore for a potential inning-ending double play
 
But Moore beat the relay, keeping the inning alive and setting the table for the game's decisive blow, a grand slam bomb off the bat of senior Trevor Wells.
 
"We had to battle adversity, especially after losing that first game (an 8-7, 11-inning loss to Blue Mountain)," said Lycette. "We haven't had to battle much adversity all season; we've just been cruising. So, I think in the long run this is going to help us."
 
Junior left-hander Dario Herrera – one of Carey's top three starters – kept the Rams at bay for an inning, although he did allow a run in the third.
 
But when he left after 1-1/3 innings, the wheels fell off for the Crusaders' pitching. Mobile sent 13 players to the plate against four Carey pitchers, scoring nine runs on four hits, five walks and a hit batter.
 
The Rams scored two runs in the fifth, and applied the cherry on their triumph with a four-run rally in the sixth.
 
The Crusaders fought back, adding a run in the third on an RBI single from senior Caleb Laird, another run in the fourth on a run-scoring single from Hernandez and two unearned runs in the fifth
 
Carey ended the night with a pair of runs in the sixth, coming on a single by Garrity and a double by sophomore Brady Logan.
 
Although Carey and Mobile have their spots assured for the NAIA National Tournament, Loyola may have to sweat it out and second-seeded Talladega – which was eliminated on Friday – may be on the outside looking in, when bids are announced later this week.
 
In the meantime, the Crusaders will recharge, work to get some injuries healed and await word on which teams will be coming to Hattiesburg for the Regional.
 
"We're going to practice, obviously," said Lycette. "But I think a lot of guys are a little banged-up this late in the season. So we'll take this week to kind of rest, recover, then check out what teams are coming here and what they have."