HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The William Carey Baseball Team defeated Campbellsville (Ky.) 3-2 in extra innings Saturday afternoon at Milton Wheeler Field.
 
"Proud of our guys hanging in there and competing," said Head Coach Bobby Halford. Wilson was really good in his first start with Lycette and Ratliff coming out of the bullpen and doing a yeomen's job of keeping us in it. We had many opportunities to walk it off, but Jayden redeemed himself with his walk off shot. Bridley Thomas was solid again in his leadership in his defense and his base running."
 
In a game that started just like their first one on Friday, Carey took the early 1-0 lead in the first inning. After a two out single by Eli Collins to keep the inning alive, Preston Ratliff followed with the RBI double to right field.
 
The Tigers answered in the third with a run on an RBI single by Yosuke Fujie. In the fifth inning, Campbellsville took advantage of two straight walks with two outs put runners on first and second, as Zane Skansi drove in the go ahead run with a single to left.
 
Down to their final inning, Thomas led off with a single and on the next batter moved in to scoring position on a stolen base. That aggressive base running paid off in full, as a ground ball by Ratliff to the infield was thrown away, allowing Thomas to score the tying run. It looked like the Crusaders were going to walk it off, loading the bases with just one out. However, relief pitcher PJ Ledesma induced back-to-back fly outs to get out of the jam and send the game into extra innings.
 
After a scoreless eighth inning, relief pitcher Ratliff worked around a lead off double, leaving the runner stranded at third base with a strikeout and ground out too short to end the threat. In the bottom half of the inning, it was the Crusaders turn to repay the favor of taking advantage of back-to-back free passes to put a runner in scoring position. Jayden Mark did just that, as he delivered the walk off single to left, scoring pinch runner Ty Little from second.
 
Ratliff picked up the win on the mound working two innings in relief giving up just one hit while striking out four.
 
Carey is back in action Tuesday, February 11, as they travel to Talladega, Ala. to take on Talladega College in non-conference action. Play is set to begin at 1:00 pm.