Box Score POPLARVILLE – Hinds Community College baseball started off their Region 23 Tournament run with a 4-3 win over Louisiana State University-Eunice, the defending Region champions.
 
Eagle ace, Holland Townes (Ridgeland) held the Bengal bats at bay from the start, only allowing five hits through his six complete innings of work. Townes also finished with ten strikeouts on the day.

"Holland was phenomenal today and really set the tone for the day," said head coach Dan Rives. "I think Kendrick (Bershell) threw well and Clayton (Thurman) picked up some gutsy outs for us. I loved our offensive approach, although we did not run the bases well at all, so we need to improve on that. All in all though, it was a big win over such a tough opponent in Eunice."
 
A scoreless game was broken in the third inning when the Eagles scratched across one run on a Vantrel Reed (Vicksburg) single that scored Cole Smith (Florence).
 
The Eagles continued scoring in the fourth inning by plating three more runs. Those runs came on a Reed Kellum (Jackson) two-run double that scored Dylan Coleman (Madison) and Clayton Thurman (Vicksburg) and a Justin Williams (Madison) sacrifice fly that scored Kellum.
 
The four runs scored by the Eagles were all they needed to take game one from the Bengals, who scored two runs in the seventh inning and one run in the ninth inning. Sophomore pitchers Kendrick Bershell (Vicksburg) and Thurman came on in relief for Townes and closed out game one.
 
Up next
 
The Eagles take on the winner of game two between Pearl River and Northwest at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow at Dub Herring Park in Poplarville. Stay tuned for updates regarding the 2022 Region 23 Tournament here.