[03/26/02]Andrew Embry is quickly developing into the ace Porters Chapel Academy was looking for.

Embry, who threw a no-hitter in his last start against River Oaks, followed it up with a one-hit shutout Monday night against Huntington as PCA won its sixth straight game, 13-0.

Embry (4-0) faced the minimum, allowing only a bloop single in the third inning and no walks, and struck out 10 in a rematch of last year’s South State championship.

“I promise, he did not miss a single spot tonight,” PCA coach Randy Wright said. “He’s just got a lot of confidence in himself right now.”

The rest of the Eagles are looking pretty good, too.

PCA (9-3) cranked out 10 hits against Huntington (4-7) and scored five runs in the third and fifth innings. Chase Towne led the barrage by going 2-for-4 with five RBIs, and hit a grand slam to end the game by the mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth.

Wes Massey also had two hits and two RBIs for PCA, T.J. Smith had an RBI double, and Josh Rush had an RBI single.

“Andrew is throwing great and our defense is playing better,” Wright said.

PCA got some help from Huntington to blow the game open in the third, and never looked back.

After two errors led to two runs, and four of PCA’s next five batters got hits to push the lead to 6-0.

“We had time and time again to get out of the inning, and to beat a team like Porters Chapel you have to make the routine plays,” Huntington coach Michael McAnally said.

The six-run cushion was more than enough for Embry. After allowing a bloop single to Landon Yarborough to start the third, he struck out the next seven batters.

Yarborough was later gunned down by Hoben trying to steal third.

Embry only went to a full count on one batter, threw fewer than 60 pitches in all and allowed only three balls out of the infield.

“I was able to locate my pitches better” than in the no-hitter, Embry said. “I didn’t think I had my fastball working like I did Tuesday night, so I worked on locating my pitches.”

It’s the type of performance that’s been typical of Embry this season. He’s allowed only eight hits and struck out 43 in 20 innings. In his last three starts, he’s allowed only three hits.

“I think I’m maturing a little bit,” the junior left-hander said. “Normally, when I got behind a guy I’d get frustrated and end up walking the dude. Now when I get behind, I know I can battle back … .”

He also gave some credit to his defense. Although they didn’t have to make many plays Monday, they did come up with some nice ones.

In the first, Smith backhanded a ball deep in the hole at short and threw to first in time to get Huntington center fielder Crawford Kifer. In the second, right fielder Gerald Mims made a running catch in foul territory.

“I’d like to stay undefeated. The main thing is I just want to win games. There’s no I’, there’s just we,’ ” Embry said.

“My defense made good plays tonight. I didn’t do it all by myself.”