By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
Bobby Halford has been at William Carey University in some capacity for nearly 50 years, and since 1986 that capacity has been as head baseball coach.
To say Halford is a living legend would, if anything, be understating the case.
In his 37 previous seasons as Crusaders’ coach, Halford has only had one losing season, a 24-26 campaign in 2019, and one .500 season, the Covid year in 2020 when Carey was 11-11 at the point that play was suspended for the season.
As of today, Halford’s overall coaching record is 1,288-780, which is a 62.3 percent winning rate, roughly two-thirds. Outstanding by any measure.
Halford’s total wins puts him at No. 33 on the all-time wins list for college baseball coaches – and that’s across all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, of which WCU is a member.
Halford’s win total makes him the winningest college baseball coach in Mississippi history. Former longtime Mississippi State coach Ron Polk finished his career with 1,373 wins, but 234 came at Georgia Southern early in his career and two seasons he spent at Georgia.
Halford’s teams have won 18 conference titles, regular season and/or tournament, in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference and the Southern States Athletic Conference, and the Crusaders have advanced to the NAIA postseason 25 times.
The only thing that Halford’s teams haven’t done is win an NAIA World Series. Yet. Carey came close in 2017, winning its home regional, then finishing a game shy of the championship round at the NAIA World Series for a third-place overall finish.
But the Crusaders just might have the team this season that could get Halford and William Carey that elusive second national title to go with the 1969 championship the Crusaders won under the guidance of the great John O’Keefe.
Fact is, after the two-year slump in 2019-20, Halford has found the Fountain of Youth and the Midas touch. Carey came out of Covid with a roar, finishing 36-12 in 2021 and 37-17 in 2022, winning the SSAC Tournament championship both times.
Both seasons, though, the Crusaders were sent on the road for the NAIA Regionals and came up short of the World Series in both cases. Last season was especially disappointing, a two-game flame-out at Georgia Gwinnett.
That almost certainly won’t be a problem in 2023. Carey is an almost sure bet to be one of the 10 schools selected as hosts for the opening-round regionals.
That comes on top of the Crusaders hosting the SSAC Tournament, which begins next Wednesday at Milton Wheeler Field. So if Carey is ever going to put it all together and get to the World Series, this seems to be the year.
Of course, winning a national championship in college baseball is a tough process, whether it’s NAIA or NCAA. You have to have some luck, but it starts with talent. And this might be the most talented team Halford has had at Carey.
That’s saying a lot, given his history as coach of the Crusaders. But I’ve been around Carey baseball for most of Halford’s 38 seasons, and I can’t remember one that had this much talent at every position.
The record speaks for itself. After polishing off Blue Mountain Christian 9-3 Sunday to complete a three-game SSAC series sweep, the Crusaders are 37-7 overall, and 19-2 in league play. Last week’s NAIA coaches poll has Carey ranked No. 12 in the country.
WCU has won six straight games after a 9-8 non-conference loss to Mississippi College, including a three-game sweep of ninth-ranked Mobile in which the Crusaders displaced the Rams atop the SSAC. And prior to the loss to MC, Carey had won 15 games in a row.
The Crusaders picked up two SSAC wins on Tuesday, when Faulkner University had to forfeit victories over the Crusaders, 12-10 on April 6 and 10-4 on April 7, after it was reported the Eagles had played an ineligible player during that series.
That means this weekend’s SSAC regular-season at Milton Wheeler Field against Loyola-New Orleans will mean more to the Wolfpack than Carey, because Loyola is among three teams fighting for second place.
Next week comes the SSAC Tournament, which the Crusaders are hosting. Play begins on Wednesday, and Carey will be the team to beat, both as host and regular-season champs.
Opponents scouting William Carey for postseason contests will be hard-pressed to find a weakness to exploit on this team.
SSAC teams at least know what to expect when they take the field against the Crusaders, each having played three games this season against them.
But NAIA teams coming for a potential Hattiesburg Regional and World Series game will have to rely on statistics, video and word of mouth, and the word from coaches who have faced Carey this season is likely to be some variation of, “good luck with that.”
Pick an area, any area, and this Carey team excels at it. But the team’s calling card is its ferocious offense.
As a team, the Crusaders are batting .340, good for 15th nationally in the NAIA. They’re sixth in the nation in total runs, with 476, which averages out to a mind-blowing 10.8 runs per game.
And just for good measure, Carey has hit 60 home runs this season, tied for 24th in NAIA, which is unusually high for the Crusaders, who play in a big pitcher’s park where the ball doesn’t always carry.
WCU’s first five batters in its batting order are something close to a Murderer’s Row, and the other four spots are solid hitters as well, with a knack for getting on base in clutch situations. But it’s the first three who really set the table and produce runs for Carey.
Junior R.J. Stinson leads Carey with a .414 batting average, nine home runs, and a team-high 58 runs-batted-in out of the leadoff spot in the order.
Senior Patrick Lee, who is in his fifth season at Carey, is batting .408, batting second. He leads the team with 13 homers, and he’s driven in 54 runs. Junior Jake Lysette has a .365 average, with nine home runs and 52 RBIs.
OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) tells a lot about the top three in the Carey order. Lee carries an OPS of 1.350, Stinson’s OPS is 1.173 and Lysette’s is 1.140. These guys get on base, and they get on base a lot. Indeed, the Crusaders’ OPS as a team is 1.007.
Once those three get on base, they’re on the move. Stinson, Lee and Lysette are a combined 53 of 57 in stolen bases, putting them in position for junior Brady Wilson in the 4-hole (.338) and either Braydon Coffey or Preston Ratliff, both juniors, for run-scoring opportunities.
Defensively, the Crusaders are about as airtight as any college baseball team can be with an overall fielding percentage of .954.
Stinson in leftfield and Lee in centerfield have combined for just three errors in 154 chances, and Carey catchers have thrown out 17 runners trying to steal.
The Crusaders have turned 80 double plays this season, which shows the impact of newcomer Bobby Lada, who transferred from the University of Louisiana.
After a delayed start to his season to get his transfer paperwork completed, Lada has stepped right in at shortstop and has quickly become the anchor of the infield. He’s also contributed at the plate, with a .297 average, four homers, seven doubles and 19 RBIs.
If one goes strictly by the statistics, Carey’s pitching should be its vulnerable area. The Crusaders currently carry a 5.10 team earned-run average, which is a little high.
But Carey has played a large number of high-scoring games this season, and with their offense, the Crusaders are almost never out of a game, so their pitching staff gets plenty of work in critical situations.
Halford has settled on a rotation that can be formidable. Senior A.J. Stinson, the former Hattiesburg High standout, is back in the role of staff leader after missing some time with some arm fatigue. He is 4-2 with a 3.75 ERA and a team-high 69 strikeouts.
Junior Andrew Shirah (7-1, 5.40 ERA) stepped into the No. 1 spot while Stinson was out, and he’s a solid No. 2. The revelation has been junior left-hander Dario Herrera, who is 6-0 with a 3.60 ERA and 53 Ks, and he’s settled into the role as the third-game starter.
Herrera was named SSAC Pitcher of the Week this week after winning Sunday’s series finale at Blue Mountain. In his last two outings, against Mobile and Blue Mountain, Herrera has allowed just two runs in 13 innings on 11 hits, striking out 16 and walking six.
Halford even has the luxury of two solid closers in junior John Snyder and Ratliff.
Snyder, who has nine saves this season, was out for a few games in mid-April with arm issues, but he came back with a strong outing Sunday, facing the minimum in 1-1/3 innings. Ratliff filled in nicely, and he should be a nice counterpoint to Snyder in next week’s tournament.
Halford hasn’t done this himself. He’s got two really good assistant coaches in Ben Smith, who’s been at Carey 14 seasons now, and pitching coach Erie Ebers, now in his third season with the program.
One thing the Carey coaching staff has done a remarkable job of is playing the NAIA transfer portal. Yes, it exists. WCU has successfully mined the area’s outstanding community college teams for players and have brought in several Division I transfers, besides Lada.
Put it all together, and the Crusaders present a team that is playing well and is fun to watch. Fans who enjoy watching good, exciting baseball should make plans to catch the Crusaders either this weekend against Loyola or at the SSAC Tournament next weekend.
Everything points to a dream season for William Carey in 2023, but Halford knows better than most that postseason baseball at any level can be exceptionally cruel.
But don’t be surprised if we see the Crusaders come home the first week of June from Lewiston, Idaho, home of the NAIA World Series, with a national championship banner in tow. They are that good.
Stan Caldwell is a veteran sportswriter with nearly 40 years working in the Hattiesburg area.
Photos courtesy of Jesse Johnson
