RAYMOND — Thunderstorms got the best of Hinds and Pearl River Thursday, forcing a postponement of the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region XXIII Tournament opener.

The game has been rescheduled for today at 2 p.m. at Smith Wills Stadium in Jackson.

A line of storms rolled through the Raymond campus 20 minutes after East Central upset third-ranked LSU-Eunice 14-10 in the Thursday afternoon game. Both Pearl River and Hinds had finished their pregame warmups and the two coaches were about to exchange lineup cards when a lightning flash forced Hinds to tarp the infield.

After a delay, the coaches agreed to wait until today rather than play deep into the night.

“After the first storm went through, there was another one coming. If we tried to wait it out, it would have been 10 p.m. Pearl River didn’t want to have to play until 1 a.m. this morning and then possibly have to play again at noon the next day,” Hinds coach Sam Temple said.

Hinds (31-19) will now face Pearl River at 2 p.m., with the loser facing LSU-Eunice (41-12) in an elimination game at 5:30.

The winner of the Hinds-Pearl River game will face East Central (39-17) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Raymond.

The tournament will have two games on Saturday and the championship game has been moved to0t Sunday.

“We can’t play more than two games a day,” Temple said.

Because of the water that Hinds’ Joe Moss Field took, the regional will shift to Smith Wills today and return to Raymond for Saturday and Sunday’s games.

Belhaven finished its NAIA regional at Smith Wills on Thursday night, freeing up that venue for the rest of the weekend.

In the first game of the tournament Thursday, East Central took advantage of 12 walks to upset LSU-Eunice. Former Neshoba Central star Donnie Tabb went 3-for-6 with two RBIs and two runs scored, while reliever Colton Mitchell pitched 5 2/3 innings to earn the win for East Central.