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Congratulations to the Hinds Community College baseball team for a great 2022 season.
On Wednesday, May 18th, the Eagles fell short in a heroic 21 inning effort with the first game that started at noon and the last game which ended at 12:30 am. The Eagles eliminated #2 seed East Mississippi 10-4 and then lost a 12 inning 6-5 heartbreaker to #1 seed Pearl River.
Hinds finished 30-18 overall and 3rd in Region 23 and 4th in the state and came just a matter of inches from defeating the number one team in the country and advancing to the championship game of the tournament, where we probably would have met PRCC for a third time for all the marbles.
We were the 4th seed in the tournament, where if you don’t win the first two games you find yourself in the predicament of, playing the number 2 seed at noon and then playing again that night against the reigning state champion, the number one team in the D2 polls, and the host of the tournament, playing in the friendly confines of PawPaw’s Park.
If we won both games, we would have advanced to championship game on Friday, just one win away from a berth in the World Series, the yearly goal of each of the 16 teams in Division II, Region 23.
After PRCC outlasted us in a 12 inning war, they won the tournament championship the next day over LSUE. What won’t be remembered by the Wildcats and their fans, is Hind’s Vantrel Reed’s clutch, two-out, two-run home run over the Dub Monster in left field to put us on top 5-4, with just three outs to get an they won’t remember the details of how they tied the game with 2 outs in the ninth.
In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, and two strikes on their hitter and with our closer Clayton Thurman on the mound, the hitter capped a slider off the end of his bat and it spun slowly down the first base line rolling foul then spinning back fair just in front of first base.
While the ball was rolling slowly, the runner was sprinting at top speed. The ball bounced off the first baseman’s mitt and just out of his reach and when he recovered it and tried to tag the bag, the runner beat him to the base, was called safe and the tying run scored.
It was heartbreak for Hinds and new life for Pearl River. The game and season changing win for Hinds slipped away in just a matter of seconds. A sure out… and a win in the bottom of the ninth was denied. But we weren’t done yet.
The Eagles fought on for three more innings, pitching out of some jams, missing a few chances to add more runs, some because we didn’t get another timely hit, like Vantrel’s in the top of the ninth. That was partly our fault, partly the good fortune of a stable of flame throwers that kept coming out of the bullpen for the Wildcats, and one really bad strike three call with runners in scoring position. This was a case, in a big game, in a big situation, where the bat was taken out of his hands.
I never argued for balls to be strikes or strikes to be balls. I only called them as I saw them. And my success percentage from the dugout, bleachers or lounge chair was always better than those brave volunteers we call umpires. Some just aren’t very consistent. If they heard me say “yep”, it was a strike.
Our dugout even got a warning early in the game for arguing balls and strikes, but their head coach did not and that was not fair. He was prowling and screaming all night long.
In the end, Pearl River won. They deserved it, too. But they got lucky with the ninth inning miscue that kept them alive. It was, as they say in tennis, an unforced error. Unearned. But as I heard one of the LSUE players tell one of his teammates in the previous game after he made a mistake, “S%#& happens!” It does. It did. But that’s baseball.
Pearl River beat the #6 seed, the #4 seed (Hinds) twice, and LSUE, the “permanent” #3 seed, the defending R-23 and the defending and 7 time national champion for the Region 23 championship, and won a second trip to the World Series in Enid, Oklahoma.
Congrats to Michael Avalon and his team. I know his dad Billy would be proud. I believe they will do very well in Enid. Note: Pearl River won the 2022 Division II World Series.
It’s ironic that three of the only four Region 23 teams to play in Enid, were the last three standing in this tournament; Pearl River (now twice), LSUE (10 times), and Hinds (twice, also once in Grand Junction and 3 times in Millington). Jones is the fourth team. They have played in the D2 series twice, finishing second once and are Mississippi’s only baseball national champion.
Oh, if that baseball would have just bounced a little differently.
Congrats to Dan, Josh, Andrew, Kris and all of the Eagles for a great season. I believe that great things will happen under Dan’s leadership in the coming years. I’m looking forward to the vision of Hinds new president and athletic director in their efforts to upgrade the athletic facilities for all of our sports.
Other notes:
I enjoyed watching a spring of Mississippi Community College baseball. I had only seen one JUCO game since Josh finished playing at Hinds in 2010. That’s a 12 year hiatus.
I believe everybody knows how proud and happy I am about Josh being one of the coaches at Hinds, where I spent about half of my life doing the same. There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in that soil at Joe G. Moss Field and we had 14 championships and 4 world series appearances over the years. Josh was in his mom’s womb when we played in Grand Junction in ’89. He has always been a part of it all.
I enjoyed going back to the campuses around the league this year, seeing the improvements and having flashbacks about baseball from as far back as 1983 when I started at Hinds all the way through 2005 when I (voluntarily, I might add) gave my job to Sam Temple, who had 16 great seasons, adding to the legacy of our program with hundreds of wins, 3 state championships, two Region 23 titles and two World Series appearances, including a runner-up finish in 2014. Dan Rives was part of that history, too. Most don’t remember the near World Series misses in 2010 and 2015 (Hinds record setting 43-7 team).
I enjoyed seeing some of the coaches who coached when I coached; some still coaching and some retired.
I enjoyed yelling at the umpires. I never would have made it with the silly Covid rules where the coach has to stand outside the baseline like a child and ask for permission to speak to an umpire. Abuse of power. Unconstitutional. A travesty of the game. Those rules must be gone before next season.
And for the 24 times that Mississippi JUCOs have reached the ultimate goal of playing in the World Series, I want every one to remember that no one 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.
My plans are to fund a monument at Joe G. Moss Field in honor of that great, history making team. It’s about time.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 