[3/21/03]For five innings Thursday night, Porters Chapel Academy made a habit of leaving runners on base. One swing and 400 feet later, Josh Rush changed everything.

Rush hit a tiebreaking, two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning that landed in a set of bleachers well beyond the left field fence and sparked PCA to a 5-2 win over defending Academy-A state champion Deer Creek.

Rush’s homer cleared a light tower in left-center field and traveled an estimated 400 feet.

“I’ve only hit one ball even close to that, and that was last year at Lamar, and it was a high pitch too. Chest-high is my pitch … (that was a) chest-high fastball right down the middle,” said Rush, who also had an RBI single in the first inning and was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

Chase Towne also had an RBI double for the Eagles (10-2, 4-0 Conference 5-A), and Ryan Hoben hit an RBI double and held Deer Creek (3-3, 2-1) to four hits in seven innings while striking out eight.

The win put the Eagles in sole possession of first place in the conference, and gave them a huge morale boost.

“It’s a big win because now we’re the only undefeated team in the district,” PCA coach Randy Wright said. “It’s a big boost for us, but by no means is it over. There’s 14 games and we’re only 4-0 … It’s definitely big when you win a big district game like that, when you beat the defending state champions.”

The Eagles had plenty of baserunners and hit several balls hard off of Deer Creek starter Brett Boykin, but couldn’t get the runners home.

After taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Towne’s RBI double and Rush’s RBI single, PCA left nine runners on in the next four innings. The Eagles left the bases loaded twice, and stranded five runners in scoring position during that span.

“We’ve had a small problem, and it may not be a small problem, it may be a big problem, all year long of leaving people on and not being able to come up with a two-out hit, and we did that a lot tonight,” Wright said. “We stranded a lot of guys tonight, and when you’re playing a good team like we’re playing tonight it makes it difficult if you’re leaving men on.”

PCA’s struggles allowed Deer Creek to stay in the game and eventually tie it in the top of the fifth.

Carlisle Clarke and Clarke Trotter singled and J.T. Bruton drew a two-out walk to load the bases for Boykin. He hit a hard grounder through the middle to bring home two runs and tie the game at 2-2.

After PCA left the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth and Deer Creek went quietly in the sixth, it seemed as if the Eagles were ready to waste another opportunity.

Aaron Curry led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, but was erased when Andrew Embry popped up a bunt that Boykin caught and turned into a double play. Towne was hit by a pitch, however, and Rush followed with a hard, high line drive that put PCA ahead 4-2.

Humphrey Barlow singled and Hoben drove him home with a double to the gap in right-center to add an insurance run.

“It was a big, big home run for us. Josh was absolutely due to do something like that for us,” Wright said of Rush’s homer.

“I don’t know how far it went, but it doesn’t matter if it went 400 feet or 301 feet. It was gone and I like it.”

Hoben retired Deer Creek without incident in the seventh, getting an unusual double play to end the game.

With a runner on first and one out, Bruton laid down a bunt that was fielded by Barlow along the third base line. Barlow threw Bruton out at first, and Embry caught Deer Creek’s Hunter McIntire off the base at second.

After a brief rundown, McIntire was tagged out for the final out of the game.

“I was trying to get Boykin up to the plate with the tying run at the plate. He’s got plenty of power. The baserunner just wasn’t thinking, wasn’t mentally prepared, wasn’t in the game,” Deer Creek coach Steve Adams said.

PCA 9, Briarfield 0

Wes Massey and Humphrey Barlow each had three hits and Joseph Ivey shut down Briarfield with a one-hitter to lead PCA to a conference win.

Massey was 3-for-3 with two doubles, three RBIs, and two runs scored, and Barlow was 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs. Chip Lofton was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs for PCA.

Ivey allowed a hit and a walk in the first inning, then faced only one batter over the minimum the rest of the way. He had 13 strikeouts and walked four in a complete game.