Porters Chapel outran Prairie View, and then the rain, to claim victory in a playoff tuneup on Monday.

Colby Rushing, Joe Borrello and Montana McDaniel all homered, and Clayton Holmes drove in a pair of runs for the Eagles, who scored seven runs in the third inning to beat Prairie View 10-4 at Pierce Field.

The game was stopped by a heavy downpour one batter into the fifth inning. The same storm forced a postponement of the Madison Central and Warren Central game, rescheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m.

The St. Aloysius and Clinton game was cancelled and will not be made up.

A game is required to go 4 1/2 innings to be considered official. PCA coach Randy Wright said Prairie View coach Mike Hinton conceded defeat, however, and he was chalking it up as a win. With only a week left in the regular season, there’s little time or incentive for the teams to try and finish the non-district game.

“We’ll take it. He said ‘You win,’ so I said ‘Thank you,’” Wright said with a smile.

Whether the win counts or not, Wright got exactly what he was looking for as the playoffs approach. The Eagles scored in each of their first three at-bats to back a strong pitching performance from ace Montana McDaniel. The sophomore right-hander allowed two earned runs on three hits, and struck out seven in four innings plus.

PCA had seven hits of its own, including solo homers by Rushing and Borrello and a three-run shot by McDaniel.

“We’ve swung the bats well,” Wright said. “This is what we needed — a tune-up against a good team. It was a good day for us.”

Rushing’s solo homer put PCA ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first, but the teams traded the lead four times in the next two innings. Two unearned runs in the second put Prairie View (7-14) ahead, PCA (17-7) regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second, and a two-run single by Patrick Laird put Prairie View back in front in the third, 4-3.

Finally, PCA exploded for seven runs in the fourth to take the lead for good. Borrello tied it with a leadoff homer, then the Eagles loaded the bases twice as Matthew Warren and Holmes brought in runs with fielder’s choices and another scored on an error.

Spartans’ starter Matt Smart seemed like he might escape the inning with minimal damage. But McDaniel popped a fly ball to the opposite field in right that drifted over the short 300-foot fence for a three-run homer, giving the Eagles a 10-4 lead.

Neither team scored in the fourth. Then, as the fifth inning started, a slight sprinkle turned into a steady rain and then a heavy downpour. After McDaniel hit leadoff batter David Picard with a pitch, umpires halted play. A few minutes later, with puddles forming in the infield, the game was called.

“Not really,” Borrello laughed when asked if he felt cheated out of a full game. “I want to get out of here.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com