It started with a bobbled ground ball and ended with wind sprints in the outfield.

Porters Chapel Academy booted, bumbled and dropped its way to a loss Monday night, committing five errors in the fourth inning that led to eight unearned runs. Amite School Center took full advantage and went on to win 8-6 in the District 5-AA opener for both teams.

Following a fiery postgame chat in the outfield grass at Bazinsky Park, PCA coach Amanda Yocum had her team run nine wind sprints — one for each error it committed in the game.

“We were just not focused. If you watched the infield, we messed up on the easy balls. The balls that were softly hit, maybe took a little spin, we just didn’t focus in on them. We missed one or two in the outfield we should have caught,” Yocum said. “It was just the small mental errors that killed us. You can’t do that and win a ballgame against a good team.”

Kaylee Hinson went 3-for-3 with an RBI for PCA (5-3), Hannah Embry drove in two runs, and Anna Beth Miller was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Raylee Barwick doubled, scored one run and drove in another.

Shelby Crawford had two RBIs for Amite, Valerie Dixon had an RBI single, and Sara Booty was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

PCA’s defensive meltdown came after it had scored four times in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead.

With two outs in the top of the fourth inning, the senior shortstop Barwick couldn’t come up with a grounder hit just to the left of the pitcher’s circle. That was followed by a dropped fly ball in center field, a wild throw over first base, another that pulled the first baseman off the bag, and a mishandled throw to third on a base hit that allowed a run to score. Four different players committed the five errors.

By the time it was over, Amite had taken an 8-4 lead.

“I think we’re still young. I’m starting three 10th-graders, an eighth-grader, two ninth-graders, so I have one junior and one senior on the field. I think that’s part of it. The more experience, the more playing time they get, the better they’ll be and hopefully they’ll make those plays,” Yocum said.

Barwick did atone for her error by scoring a run in the fourth inning and driving in another with a double in the sixth. PCA, though, was never able to sustain an inning long enough to threaten to retake the lead.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t have won that game,” Yocum said. “(Amite is) a very good team, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like if we don’t make the errors there, we win. That loss is on us. It’s not because somebody was better and they beat us, it was because we did not play defense well and we should have.”