TALLULAH — Darren Lott stared into Porters Chapel’s dugout, turned back toward home plate and went into his delivery. The slow, looping curveball swerved toward the batter’s box and smacked squarely between the one and the three on the back of Clayton Holmes’ jersey.

A heated moment in a rivalry game? Payback for some slight in a blowout?

Hardly.

Holmes smiled at his one-time classmate, laughed and trotted down to first base. This was just a joke between friends in a relatively meaningless late-season game.

Holmes had three hits and scored four runs, Colby Rushing had three RBIs and Josh Hill drove in four runs as Porters Chapel beat undermanned Tallulah Academy 20-4 on Monday. Lott went 2-for-3 with a homer and a double for Tallulah (9-8).

Tallulah had beaten PCA 1-0 earlier this season, but was without several key starters for the rematch. Albert Martin, the winning pitcher in the first meeting, joined Owen Clark at a junior college tryout in Shreveport. Another starter was at a track meet. Their absence left the Trojans with only 10 players, most of whom were playing out of position.

“I guess about what I expected to happen, happened. But we got nine or 10 hits. We hit the ball well. It beats batting practice off of me,” Tallulah coach Doug Branning said.

PCA (14-7) jumped out to a 10-1 lead after three innings as Tallulah starter Wade Walker and reliever David Duncan walked nine batters. Tallulah scored three runs in the fourth inning to cut it to 10-4, but the Eagles salted it away with a 10-run rally in the fifth. A two-run double by Rushing and a bases-clearing double by Hill highlighted the outburst.

By then, however, the game had long since turned into a laugher that had an atmosphere more suited to a preseason scrimmage than a regular-season rivalry game.

Several PCA players chatted with friends from Tallulah near the end of their dugout. PCA coach Randy Wright bantered with both fans and umpires, and often talked with his mentor and future boss Branning when he was coaching third base. Branning will take over as PCA’s headmaster this summer.

“There wasn’t any need for us to be uptight today,” said Branning, whose Tallulah team was eliminated from playoff contention last week and ends the season today at home against Franklin.

Branning’s words carried over to the late-game plunking of Holmes. With the Eagles already ahead 20-4 with two outs in the top of the fifth, Holmes, who started his high school career at Tallulah, came to bat. Someone in PCA’s dugout joked that Lott should hit Holmes with a pitch, and the next offering was a curveball into the middle of Holmes’ back.

Holmes laughed it off.

“I knew it was coming,” he said with a laugh. “It’s all right. It didn’t bother me.”

Ridgeland 7, VHS 5

Ridgeland turned four errors, a dropped third strike and a two-run double by Nick Johnson into a five-run third inning, then scored two more in the top of the seventh to hand Vicksburg High its first division loss.

Tyler Temple doubled and Jacob Thomas went 3-for-3 with a double, home run and four RBIs for VHS (15-6, 11-1 Division 3-4A), which had already wrapped up the division title. Ridgeland, playing for second place, improved to 11-2 in the division.

“We gave them eight outs in the third inning,” VHS coach Jamie Creel said. “I’m not going to push the panic button. They just didn’t show up ready to play. (Ridgeland) has been playing great baseball and so have we. They made plays and took it to us.”

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Contatct Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com