For all of their confidence and swagger, for all of their success, even the members of Hinds Community College’s baseball team seemed taken aback when the numbers crossed their lips.

Forty-one and five.

The team’s record translates to an .891 winning percentage, an almost absurd number in a game where a player who gets a hit 30 percent of the time is an all-star.

The Eagles have already set a school record for wins, which they’ll try to add to as they head into the Region XXIII tournament beginning Thursday in Eunice, Louisiana.

“It’s hard to keep up. We just practice and come out and play. Coach Temple just says play one game at a time, and before you know it we look up and it’s 41-5,” Hinds center fielder Quade Smith said. “Last year we ended 40-21. We’re going to regionals already with 40 wins. It’s crazy to think about it.”

That 40-win season ended with Hinds one short of a national championship. With the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges state title secured, the Region XXIII tournament is the next step in getting back to the NJCAA Division II World Series.

It won’t be easy. The Eagles are 6-0 against East Mississippi (29-16) and Northwest Mississippi (32-15), the two other MACJC teams in the tournament, but lurking is host LSU-Eunice.

Hinds, last year’s national runner-up, is No. 1 in the NJCAA Division II poll. LSU-Eunice (41-9) is ranked second. The teams could meet as early as Friday night.

Hinds opens the tournament Thursday at 3 p.m. against East Mississippi, while LSU-Eunice plays Northwest at 7 p.m. The losers’ and winners’ bracket games of the double-elimination tournament will play out Friday and Saturday.

However it sorts out, only one of the of two powerhouses will advance to the NJCAA Division II World Series next week in Enid, Oklahoma.

“It’s just another steppingstone,” Hinds third baseman Chase Lunceford said. “We’ve just got to do our jobs and hopefully go back to Enid.”

In addition to the competition, the regional puts Hinds in a weird position. Its main emphasis was to win the state championship, which it did last week. With that accomplished, its ultimate goal is to get back to the World Series and win it all.

In between is the regional, a necessary — if awkward — bridge between the two. If the Eagles get too caught up in the euphoria of the state title, or start looking ahead to the World Series, their season could well end this weekend.

No one on Hinds’ roster, however, seemed to think that would be a problem.

There are eight sophomores in the starting lineup who were on last year’s World Series team. With that experience, they said, they know how to handle this week and keep on rolling.

“We’ve got a lot of sophomores on this team. They’ve been there, they’ve done that, they know what it takes to get there. We’re just looking forward to having another chance at it,” freshman outfielder Kyle O’Keefe said.

Hinds coach Sam Temple, too, expressed confidence in his players. The Eagles are talented as well as experienced — 13 players have signed to play with Division I programs next season — and part of that talent is having the maturity to know how to handle their business.

“They know the task at hand next week. They know what that opportunity gives them, and that’s an opportunity to go back to the World Series,” Temple said. “We’ve just got to go in and play good ball against three really tough opponents.”