It Only Takes One

(#31)

It was the “Shot Heard ‘Round our World” and would be talked about around Raymond and Wesson for years to come. It’s a memory that will be played over and over… Daniel Tackett‘s 3-run homer hit deep into the night with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning, that led Hinds to a hard-fought 5-2 win over arch-rival Co-Lin in May of 2002 at Joe G. Moss Field in Raymond.

With the win, the Eagles advanced to the Region 23, Division II Tournament for the 9th straight season. But it took a tie-breaker game to do it. In fact, it took a doubleheader loss by Co-Lin at Pearl River the weekend before to give the Eagles any opportunity at all to advance. Special thanks to the Wildcats. Maybe this was payback for the “The Great Do-Over” in 1994. Doubtful.

Hinds and Co-Lin split their four game regular season series with the Wolves winning two games in Wesson and the Eagles winning two in Raymond.

At stake was a trip to the Region 23 tournament, something each team had done for the last eight seasons, since the tournament’s inception in 1994.

Co-Lin was the defending champion and had won three of the last four tournaments and together, Hinds and Co-Lin had won 6 of the last 8 Region 23 championships.

The Eagles last won the tournament in 1999, but lost two Region 23 championship games to Co-Lin in 2001. This time, one team would advance and the other would stay home.

Big game, big crowd (the best ever at Hinds), big atmosphere, big rivalry, big hits, big surprises. This game had it all!

Oh yeah, that bomb to left field was Tackett’s first home run of the season, but what a shot it was.

And ever better than that, 2nd baseman Chris Carpenter hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

It was also Carpenters first home run of the season.

Timely hitting… very timely!

Lessons Learned: Bill Oakes and Yogi Berra used to say “It ain’t over ’til it’s over!” Use up all your swings. You can’t take them home with you. And it only takes one. This pitch. This swing. This moment in time. The ball and bat showed up at the right place, at the right time… planned by God even before time began.