RAYMOND – The Hinds Community College baseball team split their opening four-game series with Frontier Community College (Illinois) last week.
 
After getting swept in the opening two games Friday, the Eagles responded by sweeping the second double-header on Saturday.
 
Head coach Dan Rives was pleased to see his team play with an edge.
 
"I was pleased with our response today (Saturday)," Rives said. "We had two tough losses on Friday, but we learned a lot from that, and our guys handled it the right way on Saturday by coming out and playing with an edge. Frontier has a very good ball club, and this weekend was a great test for us in that it will help us prepare for conference play. Holland Townes (Ridgeland) and Gage Bihm (Washington, La.) were fantastic on the mound and our offense exploded in game two, which is always nice to see."
 
Game One
 
Getting the nod in game one on the mound was sophomore pitcher Holland Townes, who went the distance, throwing seven innings and striking out nine.
 
Leading the way for the Eagle offense in game one was sophomore outfielder Tyree Carr (Clinton), who finished with two hits and two runs batted in. Carr also had the go-ahead homerun in the bottom of the fifth inning to break the 2-2 tie.
 
Sophomore pitcher/outfielder Justin Williams (Madison) contributed one run on a triple in the bottom of the third inning to give the Eagles their first run of the ball game. Sophomore shortstop Gavin Mink (Olive Branch) also contributed one hit in the game.
 
Game Two
 
The Eagle bats exploded in game two of the double-header. Starting things off in the bottom of the first inning was sophomore infielder Vantrel Reed (Vicksburg), who hit a two-run homerun. The hot start would continue in the bottom half of the second inning, where the Eagles would score four more runs. The last of the scoring would happen in the sixth and seventh inning, where the Eagles contributed two runs to secure the 8-0 run-rule victory.
 
Tyree Carr contributed another multi-hit game in game two of the double-header, going 3-4 with two runs batted in. Josh Rodriguez (Belleville, NJ), Clayton Thurman (Vicksburg) and Cole Smith (Florence) all contributed two hits in the game two victory.
 
Sophomore pitcher Gage Bihm had a career day on the mound in game two, going six complete innings, striking out seven and only giving up three hits. Freshman Connor Nation (Madison) came in in relief for Bihm and threw one inning to secure the victory.
 
The Eagles are back in action this Saturday when they head to Meridian to take on Meridian Community College. The double-header is slated to begin at 1 p.m. and can be watched at https://mcceagles.live/green-channel/.