By Nathan Deen
Published on fFbruary 13, 2008
After winning their first six games, the PJC baseball team traveled to New Orleans to play in the Delgado Tournament Feb. 7 – 11. The Pirates suffered their first loss at the hands of the host team, Delgado Community College, on Thursday. However, with the win that followed against the College of Dupage that same day, head coach Bill Hamilton tied Buddy Kisner as PJC’s all-time winning coach with 524 career wins.
On Friday, as the players were eager to give their coach the record setting win, PJC destroyed Delgado 11-2, letting Hamilton pass Kisner with 525 career wins. It took Kisner 20 years to reach 524 wins while Hamilton reached that milestone in 18 years.
Hamilton thanked all of his staff and the PJC administration for their help and support.
The Pirates didn’t want to stop there though; they still had two games left to play. PJC defeated Dupage once more by a score of 12-4 and then defeated Delgado again on Sunday 12-5 to win the tournament championship.
Offense has been PJC’s driving force so far in the early season. The Pirates are averaging over 10 runs per game. David Pouiter had two stellar games offensively over the weekend. Against Dupage he had two doubles and two RBI’s, and against Delgado he had a double, a home run and two RBI’s. Alex Melendez, who has seen limited action so far as he is battling a shoulder injury, hit a three-run home run. Melendez was described by Hamiton as a premiere shortstop.
The baseball team returns to play a double header at home on Tuesday against Chattahoochee Valley Community College (Ala.), followed by three more home games against Jefferson Davis Community College (Ala.), North West Shoals Community College (Ala.), and Faulkner State Community College (Ala.).