Game 3 of PCA-Tunica playoff series suspended in the seventh inning
Published 11:14 pm Thursday, April 27, 2023
- Porter's Chapel Academy baseball player Gavin White was batting in the seventh inning when Game 3 of the Eagles' playoff series was stopped and then suspended because of weather on Thursday. The game will resume Saturday at 6 p.m. at Tunica.
Thunder and lightning put Porter’s Chapel and Tunica Academy on ice.
PCA and Tunica were tied at 2 in the top of the seventh inning of the deciding Game 3 of their MAIS Class 3A baseball playoff series when it was halted by lightning Thursday night. The teams were unable to resume play, and will have to wait two days to pick up where they left off.
Game 3 will resume Saturday at 6 p.m. at Tunica. Porter’s Chapel will have a runner on first base, no outs, and a 1-2 count on batter Gavin White.
Brayden King led off the seventh inning with a walk, and while White was batting a large bolt of lightning was visible beyond the left field fence. Tunica’s Parker Cook threw one more pitch before the game was stopped and eventually suspended.
White is 1-for-2 in the game. Thomas Azlin drove in both of PCA’s runs, with a ground out in the second inning and a single in the fourth. John Wyatt Massey pitched six innings and allowed two unearned runs, but because of rules requiring pitchers to rest between games he will not return to the mound when the game resumes Saturday.
Neither will Cook, who allowed eight hits but only the two runs in six innings plus. Cook had six strikeouts.
PCA won Game 1 of the series Monday in Vicksburg, 9-6, and had a chance to close it out long before the bad weather moved in Thursday night.
Tunica (14-6) stayed alive, however, by winning Game 2 earlier in the evening. Brady Roehm hit a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 victory.
PCA pitcher Zach Ashley retired the first two batters in the seventh, then gave up two singles and hit a batter with a full count pitch before Roehm’s game-winning hit.
Ashley allowed seven hits and two walks, and only two runs in 6 2/3 innings. He had three strikeouts.
Lawson Selby was 1-for-2 with one RBI for PCA (16-9), and Massey doubled and scored a run.
PORTER’S CHAPEL VS. TUNICA ACADEMY
MAIS Class 3A baseball playoffs, second round
• Game 1 – Porter’s Chapel 9, Tunica Academy 6
• Game 2 – Tunica Academy 2, Porter’s Chapel 1
• Game 3 – Porter’s Chapel 2, Tunica Academy 2, suspended in the seventh inning; the game will resume Saturday at 6 p.m. at Tunica Academy