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I went to Hinds over 39 years ago with the dream of winning championships. In our third season in 1986, we won the South Division Championship and advanced to the state playoffs only to get knocked off by East Mississippi, 4-0 and 3-2 in 10 innings; two great pitching duels.
We won 24 south division games the following year, sweeping four games from East Central, Jones, Utica, and Southwest, won three of four against Gulf Coast and Co-Lin and splitting the series with Pearl River.
The ’87 Eagles were 32-8 in the regular season, put together winning streaks of 5, 7, 5 and 6 and never lost two games in a row, until the Eastern District Tournament.
We won two of three at home against Itawamba in the first round of the MJCA State Playoffs in Raymond, winning the opener, 4-3 in 8 innings, losing game 2, 15-3, and turned right around to win the series with an 11-6 win.
We advanced to host the State Championship Series against Mississippi Delta in what I still believe was the best state championship series of all-time.
On the mound in game 1 was future 10-year MLB right-hander, Pat Rapp who had been locked in a great pitching duel with another future big-leaguer, lefty Kevin Rogers. But even with those two studs on the mound, both teams got plenty of big hits and put a lot of runs on the board.
The Eagles led 9-5, when Delta put together a rally and scored a run off Rapp in the top of the seventh. Warren Guerriero, the scheduled game 2 starter, entered the game with runners on first and second with one out. On a 2-2 pitch, pinch hitter Bobby Picou hit a monster 3-run homer over the trees in left field to tie the game at 9. Number 15 struck out the next hitter on three pitches before the game was called because of darkness.
Guerriero came back on Saturday and pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings and the Eagles won game one of the series 10-9 in 10 innings on a RBI double by Chris Wilson.
30 minutes later, Guerriero continued on the mound as the game 2 starter and pitched until the game was suspended by rain with the score tied at three with a runner on and 2 outs in the top of the seventh.
The following day, lefty Danny Jones took the mound and got two outs on ground balls to send the Eagles to the bottom on the seventh with a chance to win the state championship.
Tim Brunswick led off the inning with a walk, and after fouling off two sacrifice bunt attempts, Kenny Riche’ lined a double into the gap in left scoring Brunswick with the winning run.
In the Region 23 tournament the following week, Hinds lost 5-1 to Gulf Coast, eliminated Delgado 10-2 in 10 innings, got revenge on Gulf Coast with an 11-6 win in another elimination game and lost to Delta 10-5 in the championship game.
The Region 23 runner-up earned us a spot in Eastern District Tournament in Moorhead. We lost to national powerhouse Louisburg (NC) 14-1 and to Roane State (TN) 10-9 in 12 innings. Louisburg returned to Grand Junction with the tournament win. (Note: We would get our revenge over them in 1989). 1987 was Hinds’ first appearance in the Region 23 tournament and the Eastern District Tournament.
Center fielder Kelly Dickinson led the team in hitting with a .425 average. Ricky Smith was the leader in home runs (7) and RBI (44). Tim Brunswick stole 25 bases.
Rapp won 12 games and set a still-standing team record with 21 career wins. Guerriero top the staff with a 1.63 ERA.
Dickinson was chosen by his teammates as Player of the Year. Outstanding performance awards were given to Guerriero (Pitcher), Smith (Offense), and Brunswick (Defense). Smith and Barry Collier were the team captains.
Smith was an All-State selection and Dickinson and Rapp received All-State and All-Region 23 honors. Rapp was named to the All-Eastern District team. Note: How Guerriero did not make the All-State team still baffles me.
Brunswick, Smith, Collier, and Wilson represented Hinds in the MJCA All-Star game.
The Eagles finished the season with a 38-13 record. We were 24-4 in the South Division, 35-10 against Region 23 teams, 32-8 against MAJC competition, and 6-5 in the post-season.
The team hit .347, with 510 hits, and scored 333 runs. We stole 96 bases in 110 attempts. But the most impressive thing was that we walked more than we struck out; 205/160. That doesn’t happen very often. On the mound we had an earned run average of 2.49 over 369 innings in 51 games, unbelievable with aluminum bats.
We lost three great teammates far too soon over the years: Chris Wilson, Ronnie Jackson, and Kevin Butts.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 