Porters Chapel Academy’s hitting finally took a breather on Thursday.

Its pitching, winning streak and drive toward a state championship did not.

Cole Smith struck out 13 batters in six innings of one-hit ball, Dan Ivey went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs, and PCA completed a two-game sweep of defending state champion Tunica Institute with a 5-1 win.

PCA (22-8-1) advanced to face Tri-County in the MPSA Class A North State finals beginning on Tuesday. The District 4-A rivals split a doubleheader in March, with Tri-County winning the run differential tiebreaker for the district title.

Because of that, PCA will be on the road for Game 1 of the North State series. PCA coach Randy Wright said a site and time has yet to be determined.

&#8220We’re looking forward to playing them again and bringing our best game this time,” Ivey said. &#8220They’re good and we’re good. I don’t feel like we played our best either time, to be honest. But they still have a good team, and good pitchers.”

PCA had won its first three playoff games by pounding the baseball – it scored 38 runs on 39 hits in those contests. But lost amid the offense was a dominant pitching staff that took center stage on Thursday.

Smith was nearly untouchable, seemingly mowing down batters at will. Colter Bowles hit a solo home run off him in the third inning, but that was Tunica’s only hit of the game and one of just two baserunners the Blue Devils (15-5) had. Smith hit Mark Husband with a pitch in the fifth.

In the two-game series, Tunica had only five baserunners and two hits, and managed to get just three balls out of the infield. Of the 36 outs the Blue Devils made in the series, 27 came via a strikeout. PCA’s pitchers had at least two strikeouts in all but one inning in the series, and at least one in every inning.

&#8220I thought our pitching staff was phenomenal in this series. Our scouting report was that they could kill the ball, and they got all of two hits in the series. I was real pleased with our pitching,” Wright said. &#8220We threw a lot of strikes and went after their hitters.”

PCA needed the strong pitching effort on Thursday, since its hitting disappeared after a fast start.

Chris Mixon scored on a wild pitch in the top of the first and Ivey drove in two runs with a ground-rule double to put the Eagles ahead 3-0. Then they didn’t get another hit until Ivey’s RBI single in the fifth made it 4-1.

Moose Carney had reached on a fielder’s choice and eventually scored on a wild pitch later in the fifth inning for PCA’s final run.

In all, the Eagles had 13 baserunners, but only four hits – three of them in the first inning. Seven of PCA’s nine starters reached base at least once. Husband, Tunica’s starting pitcher, walked three batters, hit four more and uncorked two wild pitches in 4 1/3 innings to help PCA along.

&#8220We were real dead. Down there we got up a lot quicker. I guess we were expecting that again,” Smith said. &#8220But a win is a win.”