Mama said there’d be days like this.

They just don’t happen very often at Porters Chapel Academy.

Jason Tuggle allowed four hits and a walk, and struck out nine in five innings, Jack Ledoux and Zach Ruple each drove in two runs and Claiborne Academy thumped PCA 12-0 in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Pierce Field.

PCA has won two MPSA Class A championships and made nine straight playoff appearances in 13 seasons under coach Randy Wright. This was the first time, however, that Wright could recall being beaten by the mercy rule on his home field.

Claiborne added to the misery in game two, taking a 16-6 win behind home runs from Tuggle and Dakota Edwards. That game would have also ended by the mercy rule, but both coaches agreed before the start to only play five innings.

“That’s absolutely a complete and total embarrassment and the worst I’ve ever seen one of my teams perform,” Wright said. “I just didn’t have them ready to play. I did a poor job preparing the team. Chalk that one up to me.”

While Wright shouldered the blame, the loss was a total team effort for the Eagles. They couldn’t hit Tuggle and their pitchers couldn’t throw strikes — especially in the second inning of game one, when Claiborne scored all of its runs.

The first seven batters of the second inning reached base for Claiborne, four of them on walks. Two of the free passes came with the bases loaded. PCA used three pitchers in the inning, while Claiborne sent 15 batters to the plate.

After Tuggle hit a sacrifice fly to left for the first out, the next two batters walked and Ruple and Ledoux followed with a pair of two-run singles to make it 10-0. Ledoux then scored on a sequence that summed up the day for PCA.

PCA catcher Josh Hill tried to pick off Ledoux at first base, but the throw bounced off the glove of Joe Borrello and down the right field line. As Ledoux neared second, Borrello’s throw hit the runner in the helmet, allowing Ledoux to go to third. Claiborne’s Kyle Holliday then hit a flyball to center that seemed to be caught by PCA’s Colby Rushing. As Rushing transferred the ball out of his glove to throw home, however, he lost the handle on it. Umpires ruled he had dropped it, not caught it for the out. So not only did Ledoux score, Holliday was safe at second.

Holliday eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 12-0.

“It was just a total breakdown. We could not execute. Just a bad inning,” Wright said, taking little comfort in the fact Claiborne didn’t score again. “Grand scheme of things is we’re not good and we’ve got to get better in a hurry.”

Porters Chapel will play at District 5-A rival Central Hinds on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

VHS 16, Callaway 4

Trey Prentiss hit a two-run home run to highlight an eight-run third inning as Vicksburg High (7-2, 4-1 Division 3-4A) blasted Callaway.

The Gators used a different pitcher in each of the four innings. Jacob Thomas started and got the win. Andrew Brown finished up.

Leading 11-4, the Gators ended the game by the mercy rule with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Stanton Price had a sacrifice fly to left while Brown followed up with a two-run single and then scored when Callaway failed to catch Kurt Cooksey’s infield pop-up.

Brandon 4, WC 0

Brandon rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a hard-fought win from Warren Central (3-4). Temple Harvey held WC to one hit and one walk, and struck out three in seven innings to get the win. Jason Pettway (1-1) struck out four and allowed one walk and four hits in six innings, but was the hard-luck loser.

WC had runners on several times, thanks to four Brandon errors. But the Bulldogs turned two double plays to escape jams, then broke a scoreless tie with three hits in the sixth. An RBI double by Jason Hicks and an RBI single by Harvey were sandwiched around two hit batters. John North capped the inning with a two-run double that made it 4-0.

“(Pettway) threw well enough to win. We played good enough defense to win,” WC coach Randy Broome said. “Their guy was good. We had some good hacks off him, too. Just bad luck.”