The Catch

(#38) Latest Revision- June, 2024

Mississippi JUCOs have reached the ultimate goal of playing in the World Series a total of 27 times. I just want to let every one know that no team did it, until Hinds Community College did it first, with Mississippi’s first trip to the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1989. No Mississippi team had played in the series from its inception in 1958.

This story is one of many about the record-setting, history-making Hinds baseball team of 1989. That season marked the merger of the predominately white Raymond campus and the predominantly black Utica campus baseball teams of Hinds Community College. Merging these two baseball programs, each successful on their own, was not a simple task. I don’t even remember anyone discussing it with me before the decision was made.

Not everyone was happy about it, but it never was about race although some people wanted to make that the problem. It was just about two teams being stripped of their identity that each had worked very hard to establish, me for 5 years in Raymond with 3 south division and 1 state championship, a Region 23 runner-up finish and our first appearance in the Eastern District Tournament appearance… all in five seasons. George McQuitter had been the head coach at Utica for 8 seasons, with 2 district championships, 1 south division championship and a runner-up finish in the state playoffs with team that won 49 games that season.

But in the end, trust and brotherhood had been established and we eventually found the right chemistry and it worked out pretty well for all of us and the ‘89 team did things that no other Mississippi Community College baseball team had ever done before. And decades later, the 1989 team is still the only team to win a division, state, regional, and district championship, and play in the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado in the same season. And I believe that feat is safe because Mississippi teams compete in NJCAA Division II and don’t get to play in the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction anymore.

Enjoy “The Catch”

The 1989 season at Hinds had more drama than one team possibly could stand, but there was never more drama than a five game battle in the NJCAA Eastern District Tournament played in Greenville, South Carolina.

We had lost the opening game of the tournament to national powerhouse, Louisburg (NC) College. The Hurricanes had won the Eastern District Championship and played in the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado, 9 times. It was a spring ritual for them. Their coach was the legendary NJCAA and ABCA Hall of Famer Russ Frazier, who had coached at Louisburg for 40 years and had won 1034 games.

Our 5-0 loss in the opener was coupled with a 14-1 loss to Louisburg in our only other meeting in the same tournament in 1987 in Moorhead, Mississippi. We now had been dominated twice by this bunch and scored only one run, while giving up 19, and to have a chance to win this tournament and advance to the World Series, we would see the “Hurricanes” again and have to beat at least once, depending on whether they stayed in the winner’s bracket or dropped to the loser’s bracket.

We now would have to regroup and find a way to win two games on Friday and two more on Saturday to have the improbable, but not impossible chance to play in the World Series. There was no pressure. No Mississippi had never done it before. We decided to reset and try to win it one game at a time, starting with an early morning matchup with the host team, North Greenville College.

Our team was a little shorthanded depth-wise on the mound , especially since losing ace Kenyatta Fleet (7-0) at mid-season. The other guys had been resilient in the midst of long winning streak since our very average first few weeks of the season.

On Saturday, we beat the host team Greenville by the score of 4-3 to stay alive. Our closer Mark Anders was called on to “save the third inning,” taking over for starter Steve Blaylock. Anders pitched 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing no hits and no walks to win his 10th game of the season.

Noah James ripped what ended up being the game winning home run, his 19th of the season in the top of the fifth inning. Nothing new here. He got huge hits in our state tournament and Region 23 games as well.

That brought the rematch with the big boys from Louisburg in an elimination game. The Hurricanes lost earlier in the day to Aquinas Junior College of Nashville, Tennessee.

With our backs to the wall, we eliminated Louisburg from the tournament by the score of 13-8. Everything we did worked. We hit, hit with power, played solid defense, including three double plays, had multiple stolen bases and even a couple of suicide squeeze plays. We had 15 hits in the game, more than in two previous meetings combined. Centerfielder Scott Williams went 4-4 with a solo home run. Shortstop Jeff Long drove in 3 runs and designated hitter Doug Thomas hit a 2-run homer, his 15th of the season. It was a fearless, ballsy performance, as was usually the case for the Eagles.

Terry Gray (2-0) pitched a much needed 8 innings for the win. Gray stepped in and competed on the mound when it was needed the most. Anders returned to the mound and subtracted the final three outs in the ninth. Baseball is great, because after losing twice to Louisburg and being outscored 19-1 in our pervious two meetings, we beat them in an elimination game and sent them home. That didn’t happen to them very often, but it did on this day.

That set up a Sunday war with powerhouse Aquinas. We would have to defeat them twice to become the first Mississippi team to advance to Grand Junction. They needed just one win for their first trip. Mississippi baseball history was on the line.

Aquinas was located in Nashville, Tennessee, but most of their players were from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. So they played the game in Spanish and we played in English, with a southern drawl.

The great Terre Woods hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to put us ahead 7-6. It was clutch, as usual, and his 12th home run of the season. Earlier in the game, Thomas hit his second home run of the day, his 16th.

Anders had returned to the mound in the 8th, yet again, this time in relief of right-hander Freddie Hill, and got the final five outs to pick up his 11th win of the season and 2nd of the day. Freddie was heroic getting us into the 8th inning working on one day’s rest. Yes, I said one day’s rest.

Because of all of the adversity in the other dugout, we were learning an awful lot of four-letter words spoken in Spanish. They seemed a little uptight. But not the Eagles. We were loose and determined to finish the job. This was nothing new for us. We played every game the same way, so an elimination game and a championship game were played just like all the others. No excessive dejection. No excessive jubilation.

And what a championship game it turned out to be. With the score tied in the bottom of the seventh, Rip delivered a two-run single to put us ahead 5-3 with just two innings to play. Nobody was hotter with the bat that Noah James in this post season. Clutch hit after clutch hit, game after game, week after week.

Cedric Robinson was outstanding on the mound and pitched 8 innings, giving up single runs in the second, third, and eighth innings. I can’t even tell you why I waited until the championship game to use Cedric in the tournament. Great wisdom? ESP(N)? I’m not sure, but glad I did. And then it was Mark Anders…again, on for the 5th time in 5 games, this time for a real save opportunity. Save the game. Save our season. Make history. Send the “Eagles” flying to the World Series.

No pressure!

If Mark got three outs, the Eagles were flying to Colorado (and I mean we really flew to Denver, Colorado and took a charter bus to Grand Junction). No 700 mile bus trip. He was born for situations just like this. He pitched in 35 of our 54 games. One of our many MVPs.

Notice again how our starting pitchers gutted it out and took us deep into the games putting us in a position to win each time. Old school stuff.

With two on and two out for Aquinas, in the bottom of the ninth, their clean-up hitter hit a line drive to the right-center gap. Our centerfielder was Scott Williams, who was not the fastest player on our team and was deaf, so he could not hear the crack of the bat, had to rely on his eyesight and instincts to get a great jump on the ball and have a chance to run it down.

It seemed like the ball just hung up there forever. Is it going to drop in? Is he going to make the catch? Will right-fielder Van Reed get to it? Do they win? Do we win? Are they going the World Series? Will we?

Then, in full stride, Scott reached out with what I remember being a very long glove…

And then the ball went in the pocket of the glove and as he closed the glove and secured the ball and continued to run through it, pandemonium broke out on both sides. It was the thrill of victory on our side for the good guys in English and the agony of defeat on the other side in Spanish.

Better them than us.

Decades later, we still simply refer to it as, “The Catch,” another classic moment in time for Hinds Junior/Community College Baseball.

We had done it! We were the first Mississippi team in history to accomplish this feat and there have been many great teams (including some of ours) and a lot of great coaches through the years who never got to experience this.

It was a complete team effort, coupled with outstanding individual performances by many. Anders got 2 wins and 2 saves in the tournament. What a performance!

I found myself embraced with my coaching buddy George, bear hugging each other and hopping around like we had really done something special.

We had!

And like my dad used to say, “There’s only one first.”

We will never forget 1989, when arch-enemies, each stripped of their own team and identities came together as one team and accomplished something special, something no one had ever done in the Magnolia State.

After we did it first in 1989, Mississippi Gulf Coast followed in 1991, and Meridian Community College made 7 trips to the JUCO World Series after that. Meridian was great, but they played by a whole different set of rules than the rest of us. The Mississippi JUCO’s play in Division 2 and two teams, Jones and Pearl River have won D2 national championships. Ironically, MCC and Gulf Coast have never played in the Division 2 World Series. Hinds has played in the various World Series a total of 6 times.

But Hinds was first. First in Grand Junction and first in Millington (Division 2).

Since 1989, there have been nine Mississippi teams that have played in the NJCAA World Series, including the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado and the Division II World Series in both Millington, Tennessee and Enid, Oklahoma:

Meridian – 7 in Grand Junction; Hinds – 6 total appearances, 1 in Grand Junction, 3 in Millington (4th place finish), and 2 in Enid (one national runner-up); Copiah-Lincoln – 3 in Millington; Northwest – 3 in Millington (one second place finish); Jones – 2 in Enid (including one second place finish and a national championship); Pearl River– 1 in Millington and 2 in Enid (including a national championship); East Central – 2 in Enid (one as Region 23 champion and one as an at-large selection) and Itawamba – 1 in Millington.

Of course, this list will continue to grow.

Decades later, we can still vividly see our victory in Greenville, South Carolina in our minds and feel it in our souls.

That’s the power of baseball. What a great game! What a season!