By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
HATTIESBURG – It has been a difficult, up-and-down season for William Carey University baseball, but things seem to be on the upswing at just the right moment.
With the regular season in its final weeks, the Crusaders completed the sweep of a Southern States Athletic Conference series Saturday afternoon with a taut 3-2 victory over Martin Methodist at Milton Wheeler Field.
Carey (16-22 overall) has now won six straight SSAC games and pushed its conference record over .500 for the first time this season at 11-10. MMC (25-18 overall) came into the weekend in third place in the standings but dropped to 12-9 in league play after the sweep.
“I’m really proud of the way these guys have hung in there,” said Carey coach Bobby Halford. “We’re finally getting all of our guys back, after some injuries and losing some guys to ineligibility.”
The Crusaders swept a doubleheader from the RedHawks on Friday, 7-2 and 9-7, and it was red-hot pitching and timely hitting that produced the win on Saturday.
Senior Caleb Ledet came off the bench cold to drive in two runs, including the game-winner with a single in the bottom of the seventh.
After leading Carey in batting last year, this season has been a dreadful struggle for Ledet, who came into the game with just seven hits in 70 at-bats.
“I got up there thinking I had to get it done for the guys for once,” said Ledet, who came on after starting shortstop Pablo Torres injured a knee in the fourth inning.
“When he fell down in the count 3-1, the battle between taking to get to our hottest hitter on deck or to swing was going through my head, but I had to expect just one pitch in one spot, and I got it, a fastball on the inner half of the plate.”
The two starters, junior left-hander Caleb Danzy for Carey and right-hander Dakota Crowell for Martin Methodist, matched zeroes through the first three innings, and each was helped by an inning-ending double play.
But the RedHawks broke through in the top of the fourth, loading the bases with none out. Danzy got a popup in the infield for one out, before a flare just over Torres’ head drove in a run.
Torres, from a seated position, alertly threw to second for the force out, but he was hurt on the diving play and had to come out. A walk reloaded the bases, but Danzy got out of the jam with a groundout to keep the score 1-0.
Danzy got a double play to get out of the fifth, and the Crusaders grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning, after Crowell had looked unhittable through the first four innings.
Carey put the first three batters of the inning, Lucas Scott, Tyler Reid and Landon Keller, on base with singles, and Scott came home on a groundout by Patrick Lee. Ledet followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in the go-ahead run.
“Whenever you’re sitting on the bench, you still have to lock in and watch the pitcher, see what his out pitch is, see what he’s starting guys off with,” said Ledet.
“Going into my two at-bats in this game, I knew his out pitch was his curveball, but I still felt that if I could get him to my count, then he’d have to come with a fastball, and that’s what happened.”
Danzy ran into trouble, though, in the sixth. MMC’s John David Isbell – who was 6 of 11 for the weekend – smacked a leadoff double into left field. Danzy got a flyball out, but when a single put runners on first and third, Halford turned to senior Colby Shaw.
“Yesterday, I didn’t do my job like I was supposed to,” said Shaw, who gave up two runs on one hit and two wild pitches in a 1 1/3-inning stint in Friday’s second game. “So, I just wanted to pound the strike zone and do what I had to do for my team.
“I’m really consistent with my fastball, but today my slider was really working well to get some swings to get ahead in the count and get some strikeouts.”
Shaw got a strikeout for one out, but an infield single allowed the tying run to score, then a passed ball on what would have been an inning-ending strikeout put runners on first and second.
But second baseman Scott made a diving stop of a ground ball heading for center field and tossed to Ledet at the bag to record the third out. And that was as much trouble as Martin Methodist would cause the rest of the game.
Shaw (3-3) retired the RedHawks in order in the seventh, eight and ninth innings, striking out seven of the 13 batters he faced.
“I thought both guys threw exceptionally well,” said Halford. “Danzy had a little shoulder issue last week, so we left him at home (from a road trip to Stillman) for some rehabilitation, so to see that kind of effort out of him was gratifying.
“I thought we got a really good effort out of J.C. Sanner last night as well. We’re starting to get some of these guys healthy again. Some of them have missed 14, 16, 17 games, and now we’re getting our team back.”
Crowell (5-4) got a double play to get out of trouble in the bottom of the sixth and got two quick outs on two pitches in the seventh.
But back-to-back walks put pinch runner Kyle Coleman at second, and Halford gambled by waving Coleman around third on Ledet’s hit into left field, and the throw from the outfield was off-line enough for Coleman to score.
Halford did the same thing in the same situation in the eighth, after Jonathan Turner singled with one out and pinch-runner Bryson Medious stole second. But Medious was thrown out at the plate on a bullet from right field after Jake Smith singled.
No matter. Shaw got two routine fly balls and a groundout in the ninth to nail down the win.
“In college baseball, we’re going to attack the plate, because a lot of guys don’t throw as well as they would at the next level,” said Halford.
“I took a chance, because it wasn’t hit that hard, but their outfielder has a good arm. It worked the first time, so we decided to roll the dice and it didn’t work the second time. But we still felt pretty good there.”
Carey has two more SSAC series remaining, next weekend at third-place Blue Mountain, then April 26-27 at home against ninth-place Loyola (La.). The SSAC Tournament begins April 30 at Montgomery, Ala.
“It’s been a little rough patch for us, and we’ve had trouble with pitching and hitting,” said Shaw. “But when we all come together as a team, it works out beautifully, as it did today.”
Carey Baseball Linescore
Saturday at Milton Wheeler Field
William Carey 3, Martin Methodist 2
MMC 000 101 000 – 2 6 0
WCU 000 020 10x – 3 7 0
MARTIN METHODIST (25-18, 12-9 in SSAC): Brendan Grainger 1B; John David Isbell 2B, 1B; Riley Phillips 1B; Tanner Potterfield 1B; Drew Nipper 1B. LP – Dakota Crowell (5-4). Also pitching – Matt Westberry.
WILLIAM CAREY (16-22, 11-10 in SSAC): Caleb Ledet 1B; Sloan Dieter 1B; Jonathan Turner 1B; Jake Smith 1B; Lucas Scott 1B; Tyler Reid 1B; Landon Keller. WP – Colby Shaw (3-3). Also pitching – Caleb Danzy (starter).
