East Central and Holmes community college baseball squads are set to battle in opening round action of the MACJC State Baseball Tournament, which gets under way at 3 p.m. Friday, May 7 on the Goodman campus. Game two in the best two-out-of-three series continues at 1 p.m. Saturday, also in Goodman. A third game, if needed, follows later that day at the same location.

The winner advances to the second round scheduled Thursday-Saturday, May 13-15 at Itawamba Community College in Fulton.

The Diamond Warriors completed the regular season with a 34-15 overall mark and finished third in league play at 14-10. Jones County won the division with a 17-7 record. Hinds finished at 14-10, Gulf Coast and Pearl River tied at 12-12, Southwest was 8-15 and Copiah-Lincoln went 5-18.

Holmes is also 34-15 and finished second in the MACJC North Division at 16-8. Itawamba won the North with an 18-6 mark. Northeast was third at 15-9, followed by Northwest (14-10), Mississippi Delta (12-12), East Mississippi (9-15) and Coahoma (1-23).

The top four teams in each division qualified for first-round games, which are hosted by the top two teams in each division. 

EC completed regular season action by falling to Jones County in a doubleheader held Saturday, May 1 at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson.

The Diamond Warriors dropped a 6-4 decision in the first contest and were outscored 9-1 in the nightcap. 

Richie Long of Carthage belted a homer, Vincent Kortbawi, a product of Hale County High School in Moundville, Ala., tripled and Ernie Triplett of Louisville contributed a double to lead the EC offense in the first game. 

Kortbawi and Donnie Tabb of Neshoba Central each had doubles in the second game.