With a district title in hand and the Academy-A playoffs on the horizon, Porters Chapel Academy coach Randy Wright wanted to give his pitching staff a workout against Simpson Academy, a two-time Academy AA state champion in 2005 and 2006.

Simpson’s Steven Capistran blasted two home runs to key the Cougars to a 6-4 win Monday night at Pierce Field. Capistran’s three-run shot in the sixth inning after a walk and an error, was the key blow. He finished with four RBIs.

PCA (14-8) started freshman Montana McDaniel and he left with a 2-1 lead. Chris May pitched a scoreless fourth and the Eagles offense added a run off a two-out RBI single from Austin Barber to take a 3-1 lead into the fifth.

There, May got into trouble. Capistran hit his first homer of the night with a solo shot to right field to make it 3-2. Two walks and a pair of passed balls allowed the tying run to score and the Cougars used Capistran’s three-run blast in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead.

The Eagles got one run back in the bottom of the sixth and made a run in the seventh. Clayton Holmes doubled with one out, bringing up the tying run to the plate in Colby Rushing. Rushing, though, struck out against Justin Purvis, who was working his second inning of relief.

Matt Cranfield was the Eagles’ last chance, but he struck out on a perfect side-winding fastball.

PCA coach Randy Wright was glad to play a team like Simpson, but felt his team didn’t rise to the occasion.

“We left too many men on base. We had a couple of walks and made a couple of errors that cost us. We just didn’t make enough plays,” Wright said.