Tag Archives: Hinds Community College

07 Jul

summer session

Southern Miss stars Chuckie Robinson and Tim Lynch seem to be enjoying their summer vacation. Robinson was named New England Collegiate Baseball League player of the week on Monday; he hit .643 with four homers in a four-game stretch for Ocean State. The Golden Eagles catcher is batting .317 with six home runs and 14 RBIs. Lynch, also playing for Ocean State, is leading the NECBL in homers with seven and batting .313 with 17 RBIs. … Ole Miss’ Errol Robinson has a league-leading 17 runs and Mississippi State’s Dakota Brown has posted a 1.92 ERA in six games to help the Hyannis Harbor Hawks rise to the top of the Cape Cod League’s West Division. Robinson is batting .300. State’s Reid Humphreys, playing for Bourne in the CCBL, has three home runs, tied for fourth in the loop. … Bulldogs signee Tanner Poole, who played at Itawamba Community College this past season, leads the Southern Collegiate Baseball League in steals with 20, while batting .372 with 25 runs for Piedmont. Poole hit .378 with 26 steals for ICC. … Ole Miss’ Will Stokes has a 2.07 ERA and one save in six appearances for the Baltimore Redbirds, who have the best record (20-6) in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. Fellow Rebels Nic Perkins (.276) and Will Golsan (.270) also play for the Redbirds. P.S. Hinds CC alums Casey Echols and Matt Jones have signed with Mississippi College and Tennessee Tech, the Raymond school announced. Echols, son of ex-State star Tracy, hit .296 with four homers this season, Jones .369 with 49 runs. The signing of Jones brings to 13 the number of Eagles bound for NCAA Division I schools this fall.

29 May

remember the eagles

As the NJCAA Division II World Series plays out in Enid, Okla., it seems a shame that Hinds Community College isn’t there for an encore. Sam Temple’s Eagles, national runners-up in 2014, won a school-record 43 games this year but couldn’t get past a strong LSU-Eunice club in Region 23. Hinds recently bid farewell to an impressive group of sophomores who went 83-28 during their career, with two state titles (regular season and tournament in 2015), a region title and a long stay at No. 1 in the national poll. Twelve Eagles made first- or second-team All-MACJC this season. Moving on are the likes of All-Region right-hander Randy Bell (HCC record-tying 21 career wins), RH Austin Sanders (record 21 career saves), first baseman Marshall Boggs (record 139 career hits), 2B Matt Jones (team-leading .369 average in 2015), catcher Jonathan Washam (team-best 68 hits in 2015), 3B/SS Chase Lunceford (team-leading nine homers in 2015, 19 career), RH Casey Sutton (7-1 this season), RH Houston Case (7-2), RH Derek Martin (6-0), OF Tyler Cox (.323), OF Quade Smith (team-leading 11 steals) and RH Keller Bradford (1.54 ERA). Shortstop Jordan Washam (.369) and RH Graham Ahlrich (1.99 ERA) played only this season, and they are among six Eagles bound for Louisiana Tech. Sanders signed with Ole Miss, Case with Southern Miss and Bell with South Alabama. Cox, Martin and Bradford will play for Louisiana-Monroe. Years from now, we may still look back with wonder on this two-year run by HCC. P.S. Austin Riley, who led DeSoto Central High to the MHSAA Class 6A championship, is rated No. 107 in mlb.com’s latest list of the Top 200 draft prospects. Mississippi State signee Riley, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound third baseman/pitcher, batted .423 with 11 homers and went 7-2 with a 2.70 ERA for the 28-9 Jaguars. Pearl River CC right-hander Jacob Taylor is No. 77 on the mlb.com draft chart.

17 May

down to two

Only two Mississippi college teams are still standing after a generally rough weekend. Hinds Community College, the No. 1-ranked team in NJCAA Division II, was eliminated Saturday night in the Region 23 championship round by No. 2 LSU-Eunice. The Eagles (43-7) lost twice to the host Bengals in the regional. East Mississippi Community College went 2-and-out in the tournament, and Northwest Mississippi was flushed in its third game, losing an elimination game to Hinds on Saturday. Meanwhile, Mississippi State’s season ended with a whimper as the Bulldogs lost three straight to Tennessee, which claimed the 12th and final berth in the SEC Tournament. Jackson State and Alcorn State bowed out Friday in the SWAC Tournament, where both went 1-2. Millsaps, after winning its opener on Thursday, went down (and out) twice on Friday in the NCAA Division III West Regional. Still playing are Southern Miss, which will take a 13-game winning streak into its Conference USA Tournament opener against UAB on Wednesday at Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, and Ole Miss, which has won six of seven heading into an SEC Tournament clash with Alabama on Tuesday in Hoover, Ala.

15 May

one, meet two

This should be good. Hinds Community College and LSU-Eunice, ranked 1-2 in the NJCAA Division II poll, will meet tonight in a winner’s bracket game in the Region 23 Tournament at Eunice, La. The Eagles (42-5) clubbed East Mississippi 12-1 on Thursday, and LSU-E (42-9) routed Northwest Mississippi 12-0. Hinds and LSU-E did not meet in the regular season, though the Bengals did play a couple of MACJC schools. Randy Bell got the win against EMCC and moved to 12-0 for Hinds. Jonathan Washam went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs, and Tyler Cox belted a two-run homer. LSU-E was powered by Steven Sensley, who hit his 18th homer, and Madison Nickens, who had three hits. The Bengals threw ace Mitch Sewald (12-1) on Thursday, so the Eagles might face lefty Ben Braymer, who has 113 strikeouts in 71 2/3 innings. P.S. Jim Page notched his 700th win as Millsaps coach on Thursday when the Majors held off Whitworth 7-6 in the first round of the NCAA Division III West Regional. Annon Etheridge and Andy Page had two RBIs apiece for Millsaps. The Majors’ next game is today against old rival Trinity (Texas) in the weather-plagued tournament at Tyler, Texas. … Omar Johnson got win No. 300 at Jackson State when the Tigers beat Prairie View 10-1 in a SWAC Tournament elimination game. Jevon Jacobs threw a six-hitter with 13 strikeouts. The Tigers play Alabama State today. Alcorn State also stayed alive on Thursday, beating Alabama A&M 13-3 behind Cedric Walker’s complete game. The Braves earned a rematch with Texas Southern, which beat them on Wednesday. … Northeast Mississippi CC announced that assistant Richy Harrelson will replace Kent Farris as head coach. Farris is now the school’s athletic director. Harrelson was a legendary prep player at Iuka and Tishomingo County before going on to star at Ole Miss. He also worked as an assistant at Southern Miss.

12 May

crunch time (again)

While undefeated Oxford High is the highest ranked Mississippi school in two different national polls, Northwest Rankin definitely rates attention. The Cougars, also ranked in the Top 25 by both MaxPreps and Baseball America, are 29-2 headed into the MHSAA Class 6A North championship series against DeSoto Central. The Cougars, coached by Jeff McClaskey, feature Shelton Wallace (.464, 25 steals), Ian Ladner (.409, five homers, 38 RBIs) and Hunter Smith (9-0, 0.96 ERA). They are 4-0 in the postseason and have won eight straight overall. Both of NWR’s losses were by one run. DeSoto Central (24-9) is led by the highly touted Austin Riley, hitting .456 with 11 homers and 6-2 with a 2.75 ERA as a pitcher. Keegan James hits .336, and Dallas Woolfolk is 7-1, 2.07. In the 6A South finals, defending state champion Oak Grove (24-7) meets Biloxi (21-11) in the best-of-3. The Warriors have the 1-2 pitching punch of Drew Boyd (9-0, 1.04) and J.C. Keys (8-0, 1.01) and a hot hitter in Matthew Guidry (.426). Biloxi counters with the arms of Austin Creel (7-1, 2.01) and Blake Johnson (7-2, 2.00) and the bat of Darrell Montiforte (.296, three homers). In 5A, Oxford puts its unblemished mark (32-0) on the line against New Hope in the North finals. P.S. The SWAC Tournament begins Wednesday in New Orleans. Jackson State, the two-time defending champion, meets Southern University and Alcorn State plays West Division winner Texas Southern in the opening round of the eight-team event. The tourney winner earns an automatic NCAA Tournament bid (though Southern is ineligible). With probable league MVP Melvin Rodriguez (.444, seven homers, 72 RBIs) in its lineup, JSU certainly has a shot at a three-peat. … In Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, third-seeded Millsaps faces 4-seed Whitworth in the first round of the NCAA Division III West Regional. … At Eunice, La., on Thursday, Hinds Community College meets East Mississippi and Northwest Mississippi plays LSU-Eunice in the first round of the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament. No. 1-ranked Hinds is the defending region champ.

10 May

wow!

What a Saturday in Mississippi. In Oxford, there was the jaw-dropping comeback by Ole Miss to sweep the series against Mississippi State. In Hattiesburg, Southern Miss made a comeback of its own to beat Charlotte and extend its win streak to eight games. And in Raymond, Hinds Community College blasted Northwest Mississippi 14-3 to claim its eighth state championship. Hinds, 41-5 and ranked No. 1 in NJCAA Division II, went 3-0 in the MACJC tourney, getting outstanding pitching efforts from Randy Bell, Derek Martin and Casey Sutton. Quade Smith was the hitting hero in the finale, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs. USM, now 30-16-1 and 15-10 C-USA, got brilliant mound work from Cody Carroll, Luke Lowery and Ryan Milton in Friday’s 1-0 win over Charlotte. Down 5-0 early on Saturday, the Eagles rallied to win 11-10 in 10 innings, Michael Sterling scoring the game-winner on a throwing error that followed an infield hit by Connor Barron. Game 3 of that series is today. But, of course, the events at Oxford-University Stadium, witnessed by crowds totaling 27,871, trumped all. On Thursday, the Rebels (28-24, 14-13 SEC) got two big hits and three RBIs from Errol Robinson in a 4-3 win. On Friday, Sikes Orvis belted a home run and drove in four runs all told in a 13-10 victory. And on Saturday, down 7-2 in the ninth, the Rebels battled back against a crumbling State bullpen to win 8-7 in 10 innings. Colby Bortles had a game-tying, two-out, two-run hit in the ninth, and Nic Perkins knocked in the game-winner in the 10th. Orvis had two more homers on Saturday, boosting his total to 14. Wyatt Short, the sophomore left-hander from Southaven, worked a perfect 10th to earn the win on Saturday after notching saves on both Thursday and Friday. Short is 4-1 with nine saves. The devastated Bulldogs fell to 24-27, 8-19 and are in real danger of missing the SEC Tournament. P.S. Worth noting: In Pearl on Saturday, the Mississippi Braves beat the Biloxi Shuckers 5-2 in 10 innings to clinch the series with Game 5 still to play today. The M-Braves lost the inaugural game between the two Southern League clubs on Wednesday but have now won three straight.

07 May

game of thrones

The state championship is a nice catch, to be sure, but the four junior colleges participating in the MACJC tournament in Raymond might have one eye on a bigger prize: the region crown. The double-elimination state tourney starts today at Moss Field with East Mississippi Community College playing Northwest Mississippi and host Hinds meeting Meridian. Three of the four – the team that goes 2-and-out is done — will advance to the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament at Eunice, La., from May 14-17. The region winner goes to the juco World Series. Hinds did not win the state title last year but did win the region and then went all the way to the championship game of the World Series. The Eagles, 38-5 and back up to No. 1 in the country, are loaded again. Jordan Washam (.385, six homers, 33 RBIs) leads a lineup full of mashers, and the Eagles have arms (Randy Bell, Houston Case, Austin Sanders, et. al) in abundance. EMCC, Northwest and Meridian finished 2-3-4 in the regular season standings, and all are now ranked in the Top 20. But they were a collective 0-6 against HCC. P.S. Waiting in the wings for the three surviving Mississippi schools is No. 2 LSU-Eunice. The Bengals are 41-9, 24-3 at Bengal Stadium. Freshman Steven Sensley is batting .373 with 17 homers and 63 RBIs. Mitch Sewald is 11-1 with a 2.04 ERA, and lefty Ben Braymer is 6-1, 2.51 with 113 strikeouts in 71 2/3 innings. Beating that bunch at their place for the region championship could be a tall order.

03 May

aces are wild

Potent pitching performances popped up all over the place in the opening round of the MACJC postseason as the top four seeds survived and advanced. Third-ranked Hinds Community College, the regular season champion, swept Southwest Mississippi to earn the host role for the four-team state tournament that begins Thursday at Moss Field in Raymond. The Eagles’ Randy Bell moved to 10-0 on the year with a complete-game (seven innings) effort in a 14-3 win in Game 1 on Friday. Houston Case (7-1) allowed just one hit in four innings of a 13-3 win in Game 2 on Saturday. East Mississippi completed a sweep of Mississippi Delta behind Andrew Crane’s four-hitter in a 4-0 victory. Austin Towles buoyed Northwest with seven strong innings in the 7-3 clincher in Game 2 against Jones County. And in the only series that went the full three games, Meridian’s Austin Harrison allowed one run in seven innings as the Eagles run-ruled East Central 11-1 in the decisive contest. The bracket for the double-elimination state tournament has yet to be set, though it figures that Hinds will open with 4-seed Meridian and EMCC would play Northwest. P.S. Former Mississippi Gulf Coast CC standout Joey Butler was called up to the big leagues today by Tampa Bay, replacing injured Desmond Jennings, an Itawamba CC alum, on the active roster.

28 Apr

jucos ready to rumble

Hinds Community College, the No. 1 team in NJCAA Division II and the regular season champion in the MACJC, will open postseason play against 8-seed Southwest Mississippi. The best-of-3 series starts Friday at Moss Field in Raymond. Sam Temple’s Eagles are 36-5, 15-1 at home. The Bears, who made the postseason in Ken Jackson’s first year as coach, swept a doubleheader from the Eagles on April 16 at Smith-Wills Stadium. In the other postseason openers, league runner-up East Mississippi will host Mississippi Delta at Scooba; Northwest gets Jones County JC in Senatobia; and Meridian welcomes East Central. The four series survivors will play a double-elimination tournament for the state championship at a site TBD, then comes the Region 23 tourney at Eunice, La. P.S. The last weekend-plus of the regular season in the jucos produced quite a highlight show. To wit: Northwest’s Clay Casey belted three home runs in a twinbill split on Saturday against Meridian. … Jones County’s Will Hazen threw his second straight shutout on Saturday as the Bobcats completed a sweep of Coahoma. … East Mississippi got grand slams from David Pimentel and Chris McCullough in a victory on Saturday over Gulf Coast, which won the nightcap on a Tyler Rachel walk-off homer. … Pimentel belted two more homers (that’s 13 for the year) in an 11-1 win on Monday that capped a sweep of Delta. … But the most impressive feat was delivered by L.D. Coney, a freshman at Southwest. He hit for the cycle in Game 2 of a doubleheader sweep over Northeast on Sunday. Coney, from McComb, hit his first home run of the season as part of the cycle.

21 Apr

taking notes

Jackson State’s Melvin Rodriguez is having a season worthy of Ferriss Trophy consideration. The senior from Puerto Rico leads NCAA Division I in batting. He currently sits at .446 with five homers, 44 runs and 52 RBIs for the Tigers (25-15, 11-6 SWAC). He also has a .505 on-base percentage and 11 steals in 12 tries. … Southern Miss (21-14-1, 9-8 C-USA), leads its conference in ERA (2.82) and fielding (.974). Those stats may bode well for USM’s chances of winning in the postseason, when those aspects of the game are magnified. … Ole Miss ranks last in the SEC in hitting at .247 and 13th in runs (187). Mississippi State is ninth in batting at .273 and sixth in runs (230). The schools rank 10th and 11th in ERA, State at 4.14, UM at 4.15. It’s little wonder both have struggled to win in the league. … Delta State has 36 homers this year, its most this decade, the school reports. Ethan Gill leads the Statesmen with eight. … Millsaps (25-10 with a game tonight against Mississippi College) will host Rhodes, Hendrix and Sewanee this weekend in a Southern Athletic Association double-elimination tournament. The winner advances to the SAA’s best-of-3 championship series. The Majors are 19-4 at Twenty Field. … Belhaven University improved to 6-0 against Tougaloo this season with a 14-4 win on Monday. BU is 32-20 overall but just 10-16 in the Southern States Athletic Conference heading into a season-ending series at rival William Carey this weekend. WCU is 25-19 (heading into a twinbill at Tougaloo today) and 16-9 in the league. Tyler Richardson continues to shine for the Crusaders, with a .374 average, 43 runs and 28 RBIs in 40 games. … Hinds Community College snatched first place in the MACJC with its dramatic sweep of Northwest on Sunday. The NJCAA Division II top-ranked Eagles (31-4) are 18-4 in the league and take on Jones County JC (14-8) in Raymond on Wednesday. Northwest (16-6) visits East Mississippi (16-6) on Wednesday, and Meridian (also 16-6) has a twinbill at last-place Coahoma that day. … A bunch of Hinds players have nice numbers, but none are more impressive than Austin Sanders’. The Ole Miss signee is 3-0 with nine saves and a 1.48 ERA.