Eagles in groove after slow beginning
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 15, 2001
[03/15/01] Porters Chapel Academy’s no-hit streak ended early on Tuesday, but its winning streak continued for another day with a pair of impressive wins at its Spring Break tournament, 10-1 over Central Hinds and 19-0 against Briarfield.
“I know we looked bad the first few games, but it’s coming. You ain’t gotta worry about old Porters Chapel,” said PCA coach Randy Wright, whose squad has won four straight after starting the season 0-3.
Trey White threw six strong innings, scattering four hits and striking out five, and hit a two-run homer to lift PCA (4-3) to the win against Central Hinds in the first game of the day.
“I was probably only throwing the ball at 3/4 speed. It feels really good to beat a bigger team even when you don’t have your best stuff,” White said. “My elbow has been hurting me, and I couldn’t throw the ball real hard so I had to have good location and off-speed stuff.”
Andrew Embry went 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI for PCA, and Chris Simms and Walter Bliss each added RBI singles as the Eagles racked up 13 hits against the Academy-AAA school. Matt Sykes went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles for Central Hinds (0-3).
Central Hinds took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when pitcher Brian Martin reached on an error and eventually scored on a passed ball on strike three to first baseman Phillip Smith.
PCA responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning, however, and never trailed again. RBI singles by Bliss and Simms, along with a pair of bases-loaded walks, keyed the inning.
Central Hinds got its first hit in the top of the second on an infield single by Sykes the first hit allowed by a PCA pitcher in 11 innings but White increased the lead to 7-1 with his home run in the bottom of the inning and didn’t allow a runner past second base until giving way to Ryan Hoben in the seventh. Hoben closed things out with a perfect inning.
“We just got behind early in the first inning. A couple of key walks and they had clutch hits that hurt us,” Central Hinds coach Chris Perritt said.
PCA 19, Briarfield 0
Clayton Hensley struck out nine, walked one and allowed only one hit a first-inning double by Jake Perry that ticked off the glove of diving left fielder Jeremiah Riggs for his first varsity win.
Heath Smith went 2-for-4 with two doubles and four RBIs, White hit a three-run homer, and Bliss, Embry and Dustin Abbott each drove in two runs to pace the Eagles, who had only 10 hits but collected nine walks.
“We looked terrible,” said Briarfield (0-3) coach Paul Burtnett, who has one senior and one junior on the roster. “Their pitcher, I don’t think, had anything that we haven’t seen this year. He had good location, was working that fastball inside and they were throwing them where the umpire liked to call them.”
SIA 8, Briarfield 4
Will Martin pitched a complete game, struck out 10, allowed only one earned run and drove in a run with an RBI groundout to lead Sharkey-Issaquena to its first win of the season.
Bret Stevens had a triple and two RBIs for SIA (1-5), Rodney Willingham added two hits and two RBIs, Carter Abney had two hits and Justin Nipper had a sacrifice fly and two RBIs.
Patrick Hattaway and E.J. Holden each had two hits for Briarfield (0-4).