Bulldogs to meet Bears in Region 23 Tournament play-in game on Monday
GOODMAN --- The Holmes Community College Bulldogs finished the regular season 33-18 overall and 14-14 in the MACCC and will be making their first appearance in the Region 23 Tournament since 2011.
The No. 10 seeded Bulldogs will play the No. 7 seeded Southwest Mississippi Community College Bears in a play-in game on Monday, May 5 at 2 p.m. in the Decatur half of the bracket. The winner of the Holmes-Southwest game will then move to the double elimination bracket and will play host No. 2 seeded East Central at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. No. 3 Jones and No. 6 Co-Lin will play following Holmes-Southwest. The winner of the Decatur bracket will play the winner of the Poplarville bracket in a best of three series hosted by the higher seed.
In the Poplarville bracket, No. 8 seeded Northwest and No. 9 seeded Meridian will play a play-in game on Monday. The Northwest-Meridian will then move to the double elimination bracket and will play Pearl River on May 6 at 6 p.m. while No. 4 seeded Mississippi Gulf Coast and No. 5 seeded Northeast will play at 2 p.m. The winner of the Poplarville bracket will play the winner of the Decatur bracket in a best of three series hosted by the higher seed.
MATCHUP
The Bears, who finished the regular season 24-32 and 14-14 in the MACCC, and Holmes split their MACCC doubleheader on April 18 in Goodman. Holmes took the first game, 8-1, while the Bears won game two, 10-7.
The Bulldogs feature 11 players hitting near the .300 threshold including: Thomas Kuhn, Grenada, .354; Xavier Myles, Brandon, .354; Amari Conley, Grenada, .346; Hunter Azemar, Lafayette, La., .335; Jacob Lott, Southaven, .327; Cade Clinton, Sumrall, .316; Nicolas Schwing, Madisonville, La., .299; Sam Roy, Oxford, .299; Brenden Skirtech, Madison, .283; Will McClure, Oxford, .281; and Landon Wallace, Kosciusko, .275. Brandt Dickerson, Maddox Moreland and Ethan Trimble bat .500 in limited appearances and Kaiden Rosetti bats .333.
Other statistical leaders include: runs scored, Conley (64), Azemar (50), Schwing (49), Myles (39) and Wallace (36); hits, Azemar (58), Kuhn and Myles (56), Conley (54), Schwing (53), Roy (44) and Clinton (43); doubles, Conley (14), Azemar (13) and Kuhn and Clinton (11); triples, Myles (3) and Conley, Schwing, Roy and McClure (2) each; homeruns, Azemar (14), Conley (10) and Myles (8); RBI, Azemar (55), Myles (52) and Conley and Schwing (44) each; and steals, Schwing (38) and Conley (27).
Pitching leaders include: John Paul Bucker (Starkville, 8-2 record), 63 innings, 3.43 ERA, 49 hits, 30 runs, 25 walks and 82 strikeouts; Ethan Trimble (Brandon, 4-0 record), 40 innings, 4.02 ERA, 42 hits, 24 runs, 11 walks and 26 strikeouts; Josh Fleming (Hammond, La., 4-4 record), 48 innings, 4.31 ERA, 45 hits, 29 runs, 25 walks and 43 strikeouts; Vince Glorioso (Brandon, 4-0 record), 19 2/3 innings, 4.58 ERA, 18 hits, 10 runs, seven walks, 21 strikeouts; Holton Hartzog (Dexter, 5-2 record), 42 innings, 4.93 ERA, 39 hits, 31 runs, 28 walks and 46 strikeouts. Other pitchers include: Carson Moon (Sumrall, 2-0 record), Seth Terrell (Walker, La., 2-1 record), Aidan Bellman (D'Iberville, 1-1 record) and Brenden Skirtech (Madison, 2-6 record).
Holmes scores 7.66 runs per game and is giving up 4.54 runs per game.
The Bears feature five players hitting near the .300 threshold including: Jake Meilstrup, Brookhaven, .341; Gage Hinnant, Petal, .333; Trace Roy, Enterprise, .304; Cody Presley, Madison, .293; Lane Steinwinder, Ellisville, .277.
Other statistical leaders include: runs scored, Hinnant and Cameron Bolden (35), Presley (33), Meilstrup (31) and Steinwinder (30); hits, Hinnant (56), Roy, Presley and Steinwinder (48) each and Meilstrup (46); doubles, Presley (12) and Hinnant and Bolden (10) each; triples, Meilstrup, Hinnant, Roy, Steinwinder and Bolden (1) each; homeruns, Meilstrup (4), Justin Domiano (3), Presley (2) and Roy and Steinwinder (1) each.
Pitching leaders include: Davis Knight (Petal, 0-0 record), 24 1/3 innings, 2.22 ERA, 23 hits, 10 runs, 16 walks and 14 strikeouts; Dawson Richard (Berwick, La., 7-7 record), 80 1/3 innings, 2.80 ERA, 64 hits, 33 runs, 32 walks and 87 strikeouts; Rhyson Carraway (Shreveport, La., 4-4 record), 56 innings, 3.54 ERA, 55 hits, 33 runs, 23 walks and 64 strikeouts; Darius Dampier (D'Lo, 3-5 record), 38 innings, 3.55 ERA, 36 hits, 23 runs, 17 walks and 32 strikeouts; Peyton Purdue (Sandersville, 0-2 record), 24 1/3 innings, 4.44 ERA, 13 hits, 17 runs, 15 walks and 22 strikeouts.
Southwest scores 4.85 runs per game and is giving up 5.26 runs per game.