Baseball moves up in latest Top 25

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As the 2023 NAIA baseball regular-season progresses, the Loyola University New Orleans baseball team continues to improve its position in the Coaches' Top 25 Poll. The Wolf Pack checked in at No. 12 in Wednesday's release of the third in-season rankings, which is the highest for the program since the 2021-22 preseason poll. 
 

Loyola started this season ranked 23rd before moving up to No. 15 and No. 14 in the first two in-season polls. The team went 4-3 since the last poll was put out, beating then-ranked No. 8 Mobile two out of three, Dillard, and taking one of three from then-ranked No. 5 Georgia Gwinnett. Mobile and GGC are now ranked No. 7 and No. 3, respectively, and the Pack is 9-7 against teams either ranked or receiving votes at the time of the game. 
 

The Wolf Pack is the second-highest Southern States Athletic Conference ranked, too, as Mobile leads the league. No. 16 William Carey is the only other SSAC team in the poll, and Talladega is receiving votes just outside the Top 25. Both the Rams and Crusaders lead the league standings with 10-2 marks, with Loyola close behind at 9-3. Talladega has played three more SSAC games with an 11-4 record in fourth. 
 

Brandon Mooney leads the team and the SSAC with a .451 batting average and he's second in the league with a .553 on-base percentage. He's also notched the second-most hits in the SSAC with 60, the second-most stolen bases with 17, and scored the third-most runs with 49. Tucker Ganley (.370), Cole Romero (.362), Aaron Davis (.337), Jake Mills (.336), Christopher Bohrer (.333) and Kason Cullins (.330) make it seven players hitting better than .300, and Romero leads the team with seven home runs and 42 RBI. 
 

On the mound, Stephen Still leads the league with a 2.28 earned run average, as no other pitcher is below 3.00. The Baton Rouge native is also tied for the most wins as a pitcher with five, second in the conference with 62 strikeouts and fourth with a 10.87 strikeouts per nine innings. Freshman Nathan Monceaux also has five wins this season as a weekend pitcher, and freshman Thomas Hakimian has helped solidify the rotation with a 2-2 record and a 3.89 ERA. 
 

Loyola has four league weekends left in the regular season before next month's SSAC Championship in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It'll travel to Middle Georgia State this week for three games before hosting Blue Mountain Christian and Faulkner back-to-back weekends in the New Orleans area. Loyola will host BMCU at Segnette Field for the final weekend at its host facility, then play the Eagles at Tulane's Turchin Stadium. Finally, the Wolf Pack will travel to William Carey to close out the regular season. 
 

You can keep up with the Pack by following Wolf Pack Athletics on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoyolaWolfPack, Twitter and Instagram @LoyolaWolfPack, and by checking out our website at LoyolaWolfPack.com.