Hinds Eliminates Top-Ranked Kirkwood (1999)

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There is not a Cinderella baseball story better than the 1999 Hinds Eagles, who suffered through a miserable first half of the season, got better as the season went along, won just enough south division games to get into the Division 2, Region 23 tournament, had a post-season attitude adjustment, and then proceeded to knock off Number 1 ranked Northwest Mississippi twice, beat Copiah-Lincoln in a Region 23 winners bracket game, beat defending Central District champion St. Louis-Forest Park in a best of three series in St. Louis, and eliminated top-ranked Kirkwood and finished 4th in the Division II World Series. Our goal was to “screw up” (edited) somebody else’s season. We certainly did.

We were trailing 2-1 to Carl Albert (OK) in one of the winners bracket games of the eight team national tournament and did not recover from a long rain delay and lost. After the Kirkwood (IA) win, we were eliminated by Kellogg (Mo) the next day, 5-4. Kishwaukee (IL) won the national championship.

Here’s the story on the Kirkwood upset from The Clarion Ledger.

Winning pitcher Quincy LeBlanc who won three big post season games in 1999.
Eagles eliminate #1 Kirkwood.
Call the Coach! rickclarke.com

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