With only a handful of practices and even fewer games under their belts, Porters Chapel and Sharkey-Issaquena both treated Thursday’s doubleheader as more of a glorified scrimmage than the district opener.

And for PCA, that included lots of extra batting practice.

Chris Mixon and Michael Busby each hit a home run, Brady Towne went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, and the Eagles routed SIA 16-1 in the first game.

In game two, Matt Cranfield hit a two-run homer and the Eagles (4-0, 2-0 District 4-A) scored 15 runs in the bottom of the first on the way to an easy 15-2 win that completed the sweep.

&#8220I thought we took care of business and got it done. We got a chance to pitch a couple of sophomores who came in and did a good job for us. It was their first varsity action, and I think that’s going to go a long way for us the next couple years,” said PCA coach Randy Wright, who used five pitchers in seven innings of baseball on Thursday.

Despite the lopsided final scores, SIA (0-2, 0-2) hung tough with PCA until the third inning of game one and led 1-0 after the top of the first in game two.

SIA starter Tyler Hankins held PCA to one hit and three runs in the first two innings of game one. Mixon led off the bottom of the first with a home run and the Eagles scratched a pair of runs across in the second before Hankins cut it to 3-1 with an RBI double in the top of the third.

Then SIA coach Ben Williams lifted Hankins – who had thrown only one pitch in practice this season before warming up on Thursday – and PCA’s bats lit up his replacement, sophomore Seth Brown.

PCA loaded the bases and scored one run on a passed ball before Mixon made it 5-1 with an RBI single. Busby followed with a line drive over the left-center field fence for a grand slam, and the rout was on.

Towne added a two-run double and Cole Smith a bases-loaded triple before Wright gave a few little-used reserves a chance to bat and hastened the end of the inning. By the time the carnage was over, the Eagles had sent 17 batters to the plate, scored 13 runs and led 16-1.

&#8220We hung with them the first 2 1/2 innings. We were pleased with that,” Williams said. &#8220We didn’t score off of Porters Chapel last year and we did this year, and it wasn’t given to us.”

In the second game, PCA picked up right where it left off.

After SIA’s Peyton King gave the Confederates a 1-0 lead with an RBI groundout in the top of the first, PCA exploded for 15 runs in the bottom of the first.

Cranfield, Mixon, Smith, Moose Carney and Dan Ivey all drove in two runs in the inning. Carney and Ivey also scored two runs apiece.

SIA scored another run on Ryan Anderson’s RBI groundout in the third, but the game was ended by the mercy rule at the end of the inning.