[5/10/03]Porters Chapel Academy jumped on Franklin (21-7) early Friday, stomped on the Cougars late for good measure, then broke out the brooms and swept away the pieces.

Chase Towne went 3-for-4 with a home run, double and three RBIs, Ryan Hoben was 2-for-3 with a homer and four RBIs, and Andrew Embry allowed one run in seven innings as PCA (27-2) won its second Academy-A South State championship in three years with a 13-1 victory.

The Eagles swept the best-of-three series, 2-0, outscoring the Cougars 23-2 in the process.

“It’s a good feeling. Our goal, coming in, was to win a South State championship and that’s part of the goal of winning the state championship, and it’s a big win for us,” said Wright, whose team has won 22 straight games.

PCA will open the Academy-A finals Tuesday at 7 p.m. at home against Heidelberg, which beat the Eagles for the state title in 2001. Heidelberg, the Central State champions, advanced to the state finals by sweeping Winona Christian.

“Here it comes again Heidelberg and Porters Chapel, round two,” Embry said. “It’s just crazy how we play them again in the state championship two years later. It’s just crazy.”

Against Franklin, PCA wasted no time in putting the series away.

Embry reached on a one-out error in the bottom of the first, and Chase Towne followed with an RBI double to the gap in left center to score courtesy runner Joseph Ivey and put the Eagles on top 1-0.

Franklin starter Tyler Harris hit two of the next three batters to load the bases with two outs, then walked Wes Massey to bring in another run. Michael Shinn then followed with a clutch two-run single to left to make it 4-0.

PCA added three more runs in the second inning two of them scoring on Hoben’s bloop single to right that bounced off the glove of Franklin first baseman John Armstrong to make it 7-0, and increased the lead to 10-0 with three more runs in the third.

“That was the plan again today, was to get on them quick, get out to a lead. The whole series, we wanted to show Franklin that they could not play with us,” Wright said. “We wanted to jump on them early and let them know we were the better team, and not ever let them feel like they could play with us. And I feel like we did that.”

Harris was relieved by Miles Stevens after allowing a leadoff walk to Shinn in the third, and for the second straight game the Franklin left-hander held the Eagles in check.

After allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base, Stevens retired nine of the next 10 batters. Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles solved Stevens.

With his teammates imploring him to hit a home run and end the game by the 10-run mercy rule, Towne led off the inning with a blast to center that sailed over the fence and through the back window of his uncle’s truck, which was parked just beyond the wall.

The homer made the score 11-1, but didn’t end the game. Citing a letter from the Mississippi Private Schools Association that required both coaches to agree to the mercy rule before the game, Franklin’s coaches immediately jumped up and argued that the game should continue.

“As a coach, for these guys, I’ve got to go to the very last opportunity that I can go to. I’ve got to, how do you say it, pull a hat out of a trick, and that’s what we did because I knew it was a rule and we were going to play seven,” Franklin coach Ryan Ellington said.

Wright initially argued that the game should be over, but later said he would have done the same thing if he were in Ellington’s place.

“They want to play, we’ll play. I’m not mad a bit. If the shoe would have been on the other foot, I probably would have done the same thing,” Wright said.

PCA tacked on two more runs in the inning on Hoben’s homer to left to make it 13-1. Embry then retired the Cougars in order in the seventh, getting Drew Wiggers to hit a harmless fly ball to left for the final out.

After the game, PCA’s players grabbed Wright by the legs and doused him with a cooler of water. Later, they chanted and hoisted several brooms in the air to signify the sweep of their conference rival.

At first, Wright tried to avoid the dousing. He dumped out a full water cooler during the seventh inning, then looked nervously over his shoulder as he conducted a postgame interview.

Eventually, though, his players won and Wright let them throw the full water cooler right at him. He also promised to let them do it again if the Eagles can beat Heidelberg next week.

“Save it for next week,” Wright said before his players doused him. “To be honest, we expected to win this week, and that’s for next week.”