No. 8 William Carey collects SSAC awards ahead of NAIA Tournament

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - There is more baseball to be played at Milton Wheeler Field.

No. 8 William Carey University is set to host NAIA Opening Round games from May 15-18 after finishing 44-9 (22-2 Southern States Athletic Conference).

The Crusaders earned some SSAC accolades on Wednesday.

RJ Stinson was named the conference Player of the Year, batting .417 with 72 runs-batted-in. Andrew Shirah earned Pitcher of the Year honors for his 9-1 record, 4.30 earned-run-average and 74 strikeouts.

In his 38th season with William Carey, Coach Bobby Halford was crowned the Mike Jacobs Coach of the Year.

After long run through the SSAC Tournament that ended in the title game, the Crusaders are using the week off to refresh.

“It was grueling, it really was,” Halford said. “When you have an eight-team tournament, that’s a tough tournament to be in and to go through a loser’s bracket to get to the championship game. That’s taxing on your pitching and also on your position guys.

“But at the same time, we told them the big thing’s next week. That was fun, that was a tournament but the real tournament’s next week because that’s how you advance to the World Series.”

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