PCA hoping to win final home game, go up 1-0
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 15, 2001
[05/15/01] Heidelberg Academy will have the home-field advantage for the Academy-A championship series at least on paper.
Porters Chapel Academy coach Randy Wright said with the format the Mississippi Private Schools Association uses for the playoffs the first game at one school on Tuesday, the next two played as a doubleheader at the other school on Friday was actually a benefit to his team.
“We lost the coin flip as far as homefield advantage, but I think we won. I love playing the first game at home. With the way it’s set up, I would much rather not have the homefield advantage,” Wright said. “I think it’s going to be extremely difficult for either team to win two games on Friday, so I would much rather have that first game at home.”
The numbers prove Wright’s theory correct.
Teams that have won the first game have gone on to win nine of the 12 playoff series so far this year.
Rossville (Tenn.) won its first- and second-round series after dropping the first game, while Huntington which PCA beat for the South State championship won its second-round series against Franklin after losing the first game on the road.
Rain washed out teams’ first meeting
Heidelberg and PCA were scheduled to play in PCA’s Spring Break tournament in early March, but Mother Nature interfered.
The Rebels’ first two games of the tournament, against Central Hinds and Briarfield, were rained out. The next day Heidelberg was scheduled to play PCA, but it started raining after the team had made the nearly three-hour drive to Vicksburg and the game was canceled.
Heidelberg was struggling through an early-season slump that saw it start 3-4. Even so, Wright said at the time that the Rebels were one of the best teams in Academy-A and that the game could have been a preview of the state finals.
Wright said he scheduled Heidelberg in the tournament to scout them for a possible meeting in the playoffs, and the Rebels have made him look like a psychic, ripping off 16 straight wins since then.
“He’s got some kind of crystal ball,” Heidelberg assistant coach Tom Lewis said with a laugh when told about Wright’s statements. “That was one of our goals was to win our district and make the playoffs, obviously. But in all honesty, we felt like (a title run) was out of the question.”
PCA, Heidelberg both strangers to finals
This is the first appearance in the state finals since 1975 for PCA, while Heidelberg is making its first championship appearance.
The Eagles were swept 2-0 by Nathan Bedford Forrest Academy (Ark.) in their last finals appearance.
One of the reasons for the Eagles’ recent drought has been the recent dominance of University Christian. UC won the last four Academy-A titles, and this is the first time since 1993 that the Flames aren’t in the finals.
PCA and University Christian were in the same conference during that run, and the Eagles could never get by the Flames. Wright has never beaten UC, a streak that includes a second-round playoff sweep in 1999.
“No doubt they’ve been a major obstacle for us the last five years,” Wright said. “They were definitely the team we had to beat, and fortunately this year we don’t have to go through them.”
PCA, WC share title connections
Several Porters Chapel starters began their high school careers at Warren Central, which swept Hattiesburg for the MHSAA Class 5A title last weekend.
Catcher Walter Bliss, shortstop Clayton Hensley and center fielder Kyle Ehrhardt all played at WC before transferring to PCA.
“I was pulling for Warren Central, so I hope they pull for us,” Hensley said.
Ironically, Wright is also a 1989 graduate of Warren Central and will try to lead PCA to its first title after WC coach Sam Temple a 1988 graduate of PCA led the Vikings to their first state title.
Rush filling big role in playoffs
PCA sophomore Josh Rush didn’t get to play much during the regular season, but he has developed into a go-to-guy off the bench for the Eagles in the playoffs.
Rush has played in four of PCA’s five playoff games, going 2-for-5 with three RBIs as a pinch-hitter and designated hitter. In three games, he has had a plate appearance that keyed a PCA win.
In a Game 1 win over Amite in the second round, he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score a run and start a seven-run rally. In Game 2 of that second-round series, he had a pinch-hit single that tied the game, 8-8. The hit triggered a four-run rally and PCA went on to win 11-8.
Finally, in Game 3 of the South State championship series against Huntington, Rush served as the designated hitter and delivered an RBI single that tied the game. An error on the play allowed another run to score, giving PCA the lead for good.
“It’s kind of hard to come off the bench and hit the ball, but in another way it’s easier because you can sit there and listen to everybody else say what kind of curveball he’s got, what his fastball is like,” Rush said, adding that he’s happy with his role. “As long as we’re winning, it’s all right.”