With each dropped pop up, missed grounder and stranded runner, Porters Chapel got a little further away from a district championship. At the end, they were still tantalizingly close, just one hit away.

They might as well have needed a dozen.

The Eagles committed 10 errors, misplayed several other routine balls and stranded 11 runners — eight of them in scoring position — and lost to Benton Academy, 12-7.

The victory earned Benton a split of the season series after PCA won 5-2 on Tuesday. Because run differential is the first tiebreaker, Thursday’s win all but clinched the District 5-A title for the Raiders (5-3, 5-1 in district play). Their only remaining district series are against weaker teams from Mt. Salus, Veritas and Rebul.

“This leaves us with nothing to do but play for second place,” PCA coach Randy Wright said. “That’s tough to take. But that’s all we can do is take it, because we just gave it to them.”

The Eagles (5-4, 3-1) committed at least one error in five of the seven innings in Thursday’s game. Three different times, they had two or more errors in an inning. There were also two wild pitches and a botched double play that kept rallies alive. In all, the miscues led to 11 unearned runs for Benton.

PCA also left the bases loaded twice, stranded two more runners in the fourth, and hit into an inning-ending double play in the fifth.

“By my calculations we had 13 errors and left 15 guys on base. You can’t do that in the game of baseball,” said Wright, who was off a bit on his math. “We’re just not very good, and that’s my fault. I’m not doing a good enough job of getting the team prepared.”

Benton scored five runs in the third, and took an 11-4 lead into the bottom of the sixth, but PCA still had a chance to win the war, if not the battle.

The Eagles scored two runs in the sixth, then loaded the bases and plated one run with two outs in the seventh to get within 12-7. Needing just two runs to get within three — thus negating the first tiebreaker in the district race — the Eagles had the heart of the order coming to the plate.

Benton coach Brent Woods intentionally walked No. 3 hitter Joe Borrello to get to cleanup man Josh Hill. Benton pitcher Spencer Pierce made the gamble pay off by striking out Hill for the third time to end the game.

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com.