Porters Chapel dropped its second game of the season against Canton Academy 9-4 on Saturday.

The Eagles scored four runs in the fourth inning from Bradley McCullough, Kyle Guider, Leon Sims and Bailey McMillian. McCullough gave the Eagles a good bunt to give his team momentum during the fourth inning.

“We had a good rally (in the fourth) inning. Hit the ball hard, got a couple of bases on balls,” Eagles’ coach Wade Patrick said.

Porters Chapel played closely with Canton and kept it scoreless in the first three innings. Cole Irby, Zach Ladner and Zach Warren scored for the Panthers in the fourth, leaving the Eagles with a 4-3 advantage going into the fifth.

From that point, the Panthers remained in control with five runs in the fifth inning by Paco Bello, Case Hutchison, Ladner, Sy Odom and Ben Barr.

Hutchison scored the Panthers’ ninth run in the sixth inning.

“They hit the ball real well today, they’re a good team. I think they’re probably the favorite to win state or have a chance to play for it,” Patrick said. “They have a great pitcher.

“We fought back into the game. Got it to 8-4 and we just couldn’t get enough consistent at-bats to pull off a comeback.”

Guider pitched 3.2 innings for the Eagles, but lost to Canton’s Joe Smith with no runs scored.

“He almost gave us four innings and made a couple of mistakes behind him and it wound up costing us,” Patrick said.

McCullough and Garrett Hutchins each recorded two hits and Ryan Collins had a double.

Porters Chapel should be able to find solace in keeping a team – who Patrick said has a good chance of winning the state championship – to three innings midway through the game at such an early point in the season.

“I saw some good things I was pleased with and of course there some things we got to work on too but we’ll just keep working and try to get better,” Patrick said.

As the season progresses, Patrick will work with his team to clean up the physical errors made in Saturday’s game.

“Defensively just being in the right position and making the right throws, just the routine things,” Patrick said. “You can’t make errors on routine balls, but that comes with experience and in-game action.”