The Hinesville 14 and younger Barracudas, a United States Specialty Sports Association traveling baseball team, was ranked No. 1 in the country on the USSSA Power Rating released Tuesday morning.

“Well that was something,” Barracudas coach Chris Bell said when the rankings were posted. “And it’s not so much for me … The boys can wake up and go on the USSSA website and look at it and print it off and it’s something they will always be able to look back on and remember.”

Bell said it will be difficult to stay on top.

The Barracudas have competed in three USSSA tournaments this season, taking first in all three. The Hinesville team already has qualified for the USSSA Class AA World Series on the Fourth of July in Kingsport, Tenn.

“It is a big deal for the boys to have the opportunity to go there,” Bell said. “Unfortunately we didn’t do that before this year, we just didn’t have the funding to make that type of commitment. But this year we decided at the beginning of the season what our goals were and what we wanted to do and, come July, we knew where we wanted to be, and we’ve made it.”

The ranking system uses teams’ winning percentage, winning percentage of teams beaten and of teams lost to, as well as the number of games, and wins and losses.

In the ranking, the Barracudas came in with a power rating of 1,310 for the 14U Class AA division. They have 450 USSSA points and an in-class record of 10-3. Their out-of-class record is 1-0. They are No. 1 out of 1,082 teams.