Laura Hall of PCA can’t quite reach the high throw as Central Hinds’ Mellisa Prevost is safe at first.(The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[9/25/01]Porters Chapel Academy’s first season of fast-pitch softball ended on a low note Monday a 7-5 loss to lowly Central Hinds (1-10) but the season as a whole was a resounding high.

The Lady Eagles, all of whom admitted before the season that this would be a building year, finished their first campaign 4-7 and were at the .500 mark before dropping their last three games.

“I just wanted to have fun, and I think we had fun,” said PCA shortstop Courtney Angel, who reached base three times and scored two runs. “I think coming out here and playing, we see the areas that we need to work on. I think we really showed everybody a lot, that we’re not just Porters Chapel, the weak team.’ We can win games.”

The progress PCA made this year was astounding, PCA coach Liz Gullett said. Many of the players hadn’t played fast-pitch before the first practice this summer.

“I think we made a great deal of progress, because the first of the year, we couldn’t even hit a ball thrown with any speed,” Gullett said.

But like in most of their losses, one bad inning and some rookie mistakes cost the Lady Eagles on Monday.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI groundout by pitcher Betsy Bryan, PCA committed three errors in the top of the second inning, leading to five unearned runs.

PCA clawed to within 5-3 on Lindsey McCool’s two-run double in the fourth, but Central Hinds pushed the lead back to 7-3 with two more unearned runs in the fifth.

The Lady Eagles came back again, scoring two in the sixth on an RBI single by Bryan and an RBI fielder’s choice by McCool, but the rally sputtered after that and the game was ended by the MPSA’s 90-minute time limit when the inning was over.

“With a young team, we’re going to have these days. You’ve just got to learn to overcome your mistakes and your errors. And we did toward the end of the game, I’m real happy about that,” said PCA catcher Amy Rutledge, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and two runs scored.

Despite the loss and the mistakes, the Lady Eagles’ spirits were high after the game. They realized that with this season’s success to build on, and no seniors, they’re poised to do even better next year.

“I would have liked to have had a winning season, but we didn’t lose anybody,” Rutledge said. “So next year, all the teams we played had some seniors. They’re going to lose their star athletes, and we’re not. We’re going to come out here with the same intensity we had this year and we’re going to expect more of ourselves and I think we’ll play harder.”

McCool, who reached base all four times and drove in three runs on Monday, pointed to Warren Central as an example of how a team can make a rapid rise. The Lady Vikes, playing in a division that includes perennial powers Madison Central and Clinton, posted winning records in their first two seasons of fast-pitch.

“We could be like Warren Central next year and do what they did,” McCool said.

Second baseman Lindsey Webb had a different goal in mind, however.

“We didn’t go out with a win, but overall it was a great season,” she said. “We will come back next year and rule the field.”