Wolf Pack now No. 13 in NAIA

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) released its third in-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll on Wednesday, and the Loyola Wolf Pack continue to move up in the rankings as the 13th-ranked team. Loyola started the season in the receiving votes category before moving to No. 15 and No. 14 in the last two Top 25s.  
 

Loyola is one of three Southern States Athletics Conference teams ranked. Faulkner moved back a spot to No. 11 and William Carey entered the poll as the 25th-ranked team. 
 

Loyola went 7-1 since the last poll was released, and that includes a 5-1 record in SSAC play. The Pack is now 30-9 overall and 15-6 in league play to sit tied with William Carey in second place and one game back of first-place Faulkner. The team earned their 30th win of the season on Tuesday, marking the the fourth straight season eclipsing the 30-win mark, and it was the fastest to 30 wins for the program in the new era of Wolf Pack Athletics (1991-present). 
 

The Wolf Pack is set for a road SSAC series at Brewton-Parker (15-22, 8-13 in SSAC) this weekend, first playing a doubleheader on Friday at 3 p.m. CDT before the series finale on Saturday at 1 p.m. CDT. After that, Loyola has two more non-conference midweek games next week before a road trip to Tennessee Southern (12-22, 8-13) and a home series against WCU (25-10, 15-6) at Tulane's Turchin Stadium to close out the regular season. 
 

Freshman Jaxon Buratt has been outstanding all season in his first collegiate campaign, and he leads the team with a .404 batting average and a .548 on-base percentage. Junior Brandon Mooney is next with a .382 batting average, and he leads the team with 58 runs, nine doubles and 44 RBI. Jake Mills (.351) and Collin Zeringue (.328) join their teammates with a batting average better than .300, as Zeringue has a team-high five home runs as well. 
 

Buratt's batting average and on-base percentage, as well as Mooney's RBI and hit totals all rank third in the SSAC. Mooney's run total leads the SSAC, and Aaron Davis also has 25 stolen bases to sit second in the conference. 
 

Stephen Still anchors the pitching staff with a 7-1 record and a 3.86 earned run average, and his win total and ERA sit third and fourth, respectively, in the SSAC. He's also struck out 57 in 53.2 innings. Prescott Marsh joined the weekend rotation midway through the season, and he's 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA in 22 innings, too. Frank Fernandez (2.59 ERA), Grant Goodbee (2.92), Carter Holstein (3.37), Andrew Riedell (3.37) and Payton Cooper (3.41) have all pitched at least 10 innings this season with a sub-4.00 ERA. .
 

As a team, Loyola leads the SSAC in shutout wins (5), on-base percentage (.461), stolen bases (158) and walks (268), and it ranks second in the league for batting average (.319), runs scored (348), triples (10), and ERA (4.82). The Wolf Pack's stolen base total and on-base percentage also sits third and fourth in the NAIA.