If Porters Chapel Academy is to regain its place as a baseball power in the Mississippi Independent Schools Association over the next couple of seasons, Kyle Guider is likely to be a key piece of the puzzle.

The big junior right-hander threw a complete game in his final start of the 2016 high school season, and on Thursday showed that he’s continuing his development into the summer.

Guider allowed one run on four hits and a walk, and struck out eight batters as PCA beat Vicksburg High 8-1 in the first game of a summer doubleheader at Pierce Field. It was only a five-inning game, but served as an encouraging sign that the Eagles might have an ace in the making.

“He’s been showing signs of it this past season, too. The last game he pitched against Amite, he was pretty much lights out,” said PCA assistant coach Larry Allen, who coaches the team in the summer. “He pitches down in the zone, mixes speeds up real well, his curveball is good. And then as he gets older, he’s going to pick up more velocity. He’s going to be real good.”

Guider had five strikeouts in the first two innings. He hit the first batter of the game, but didn’t walk anyone until the fifth inning. He needed exactly 80 pitches to get through five innings.

“My curveball was really on point today,” Guider said. “Usually it’s kind of sluggish. I knew from the start, from the first batter I threw one to, that they were on point. So I stuck with those a lot.”

In addition to Guider’s sharp pitching, the Eagles played well behind him. They committed two errors — both on the same play in the fifth inning, when Vicksburg’s Chandler Luke hit a ball under the glove of shortstop Wade Dickard and it was subsequently misplayed by left fielder Leon Simms — but otherwise had a clean game.

Vicksburg’s only run came on an RBI single by Gage Ederington in the third inning.

Guider also hit an RBI double during a four-run rally in the second inning to help give himself plenty of cushion to work with.

Ryan Collins hit a two-run double in the second inning and finished with three RBIs for PCA. Bailey McMillian doubled, scored one run and drove in another.

“That’s been our strong point, is the defense has been there,” Allen said. “But over the summer so far, we’ve had guys that are hitting the ball all over the place. They’re starting to realize the little things, like hitting behind runners and moving guys up is just as important as having a 10-hit game. If you have a three- or four-hit game but you’re moving runners and you’re scoring runs, that’s all we ask.”

Porters Chapel also won the second game, 2-0, to improve its summer record to 5-1.

For Vicksburg, the doubleheader sweep was disappointing but not debilitating. The Gators went 4-22 during the 2016 season and have lost all four of their summer games so far — all against PCA.

This summer, however, is about far more than winning and losing, assistant coach Shelby Robertson said. Robertson, who leads the Gators’ summer program, said getting reps for players and developing them for next season was the primary goal.

On that front, Robertson said, he saw some things to be encouraged about on Thursday.

“I saw a lot of guys fix their approaches at the plate. That’s one thing we’ve been stressing so far this summer, is how we want to approach pitchers and counts and stuff like that. A few guys did, and a few guys didn’t, so obviously we have some work to do,” Robertson said. “But the main thing is about getting better, which I think we did.”