HEIDELBERG — For three weeks, the Porters Chapel Eagles lived life on the edge. In two consecutive best-of-three series, they not only took all three games to win but often needed a last-ditch effort to do so.

That ride ended abruptly on Thursday night.

Heidelberg Academy won Game 2 of its second-round MAIS Class A playoff series against PCA, 8-5, then took Game 3 by a 7-3 score. The doubleheader sweep sent Heidelberg (29-3) on to next week’s South State championship series against Trinity, while the Eagles’ season ended with a 19-9 record.

“It (Game 2) got away from us and we were all down. We just thought we would come back in Game 3 and win that one, and that didn’t happen either,” PCA shortstop Montana McDaniel said. “We never got the spark. We never got that one hit we needed to be contagious.”

When they analyze this series, it will be difficult for the Eagles to point blame at anyone but themselves for Thursday’s losses. They committed four errors in the first inning of Game 2, leading to three unearned runs, and fell behind 5-0 after three innings. Several baserunning mistakes sprinkled throughout the game also proved costly.

In Game 3, they managed only four hits against Heidelberg ace Tyler Jones, who struck out eight and walked two. PCA only had four baserunners in the first four innings.

“We hadn’t really played good defense all year long. It’s really been our big crutch. You kind of knew at some point we weren’t going to be able to overcome it, and today was that day,” PCA coach Jerry Bourne said. “First of all, you tip your hat. (Heidelberg) did what they had to do to win this ballgame and the one before this. Their pitchers did what they had to do. But it hurts because we believe, and you’ll always believe, that we’re the better team and you don’t want to go home early when you believe you’re the better team.”

Heidelberg never trailed in either game. The closest PCA got in Game 2 was two runs, at 5-3 in the fourth inning and 6-4 in the fifth. Each time, the Rebels responded with enough offense to stay comfortably in front. James Holifield delivered an RBI single to make it 6-3, then Owen Tuminello and Austin Brashier had back-to-back RBI singles in the fifth inning to make it 8-4.

“Any time you get a lead on good teams, it’s better than starting from behind,” Heidelberg coach Jim Fries said. “You get two or three runs down and he can’t bunt and move runners and lose an out. I can. It puts him in a bind and puts me at an advantage.”

Heidelberg also escaped trouble in Game 2 with a couple of alert defensive plays. With runners on second and third in the top of the sixth, McDaniel hit a line drive to third. Tuminello snagged it, then turned toward third and beat Richie Bufkin back to the bag for an inning-ending double play. In the seventh, Kawayne Gaston belted an apparent one-out triple to center but failed to touch second base and was called out on appeal.

Game 3 was just pure frustration for the Eagles. Heidelberg scored single runs in each of the first four innings to creep out to a 4-1 lead, then blew it open with three runs in the fifth. The one-two knockout punch was a tapper back to the mound and a shot to the gap. Austin Wilson’s grounder was fielded by the pitcher Bufkin, who was unable to throw out Todd Robinson at home. Hunter Walters followed with a two-run double into the left field corner to make it 7-1.

PCA rallied to cut it to 7-3 in the seventh when Jarad Tompkins doubled and scored on an outfield error, but never could string enough hits together to make a serious push for the lead.

“When you lose the front end of a doubleheader it’s really hard to come back and win the back end, especially when they’ve got their No. 1 going,” Bourne said. “I’ve got to give our guys credit, though. It’s not like they weren’t trying. They were fighting, they were scrapping. But it seemed like the life was deflated out of us after the first game.”