BATON ROUGE – The Hinds Community College baseball team split a double-header on the road at Baton Rouge Community College Monday evening.
The Eagles dropped game one of the double-header 8-2, but came back strong in the nightcap to beat the Bears 10-1 behind solid performances on the mound and at the plate.
Head coach
Dan Rives is happy with his club's direction early on.
"I hate to sound redundant, but I'm super proud of our guys responding in game two and salvaging the day," Rives said. "We still need to put together a complete day, but I like where our club is headed. We will use these next few days of practice to get ourselves ready to compete against a very good Southeastern Iowa team on Saturday back at home."
Game One
The Eagles struck first in the top of the first inning when
Cole Smith (Florence) singled in
Vantrel Reed (Vicksburg), but they couldn't find another run until the sixth inning when
Josh Rodriguez (Belleville, NJ) hit his third homerun of the season.
Reed Kellum (Jackson) continued his hot streak by contributing two hits in game one.
Clayton Thurman (Vicksburg) also recorded one hit in the contest.
Gage Bihm (Washington, LA) drew the start in game one for Hinds. Bihm exited the seven-inning contest in the fourth inning after striking out five and giving up only one hit.
Kendrick Bershell (Vicksburg),
Farmer Abendroth (Vicksburg) and
Jake-Riley Gunn (Hattiesburg) all made appearances in relief.
The Hinds pitching staff held the Bear bats at bay until the fourth and fifth inning, where they scored eight total runs to pull away.
Game Two
The Eagle offense exploded in game two, plating 10 runs in the nine-inning contest.
Reed Kellum kicked-off the scoring in the first inning when he doubled in
Vantrel Reed. History repeated itself in the third inning when Kellum scored Reed again on another double. Kellum finished the day with five total hits in two games.
In the same inning,
Cole Smith joined in on the party with a double of his own that scored Kellum and
Josh Rodriguez. Smith would come around to score after
Clay Benson (Monroe, LA) singled. The Eagles were also able to plate another run in the fourth inning when Rodriguez scored
Tyree Carr (Clinton) with a sacrifice fly.
In the seventh inning,
Clayton Thurman scored
Connor Chisolm (Madison) with a double. Thurman would come around and score on a wild pitch by the Bears.
The scoring for the Eagles came to a close in the eighth inning when
Tom Lee (Madison) doubled in Chisolm and Thurman. The final score would be 10-1 in favor of Hinds.
Not to be outdone by the offense, the Eagle pitching staff pieced together a dominant performance to only allow one run in the contest.
Holland Townes (Ridgeland) made the start for the Eagles on the mound. Townes exited after three complete innings of work, striking out two and allowing three hits.
Connor Nation (Madison) was credited with the win in game two. Nation threw four solid innings in relief, allowing only one hit and striking out four batters.
Mayson Shealy (Vicksburg) and
Henry Lee (Jackson) both contributed one inning in relief to close out game two.
The Eagles are back in action on Saturday, March 5 when they take on Southeastern Iowa at home. The first pitch of the double-header is set for 2 p.m. in Raymond at Joe G. Moss Field.
