The winning streak is still alive, as the St. Aloysius baseball team drubbed Hillcrest Christian 11-1 on Tuesday night.

St. Al improved to 13-0 and moved into first place in District 3-AAA thanks to the win and Porter’s Chapel Academy’s victory over Central Hinds. The Flashes had 10 hits, including two each by Thomas Phillips, Josh Collins and Brandon Steed.

“Just proud of our guys for bouncing right back after going on the road yesterday, coming back and getting back focused and playing with energy,” St. Al coach Sid Naron said.

The game was scoreless in the first inning, but then the floodgates opened for the Flashes. They put up three, three and five runs in the next three innings, while Hillcrest only managed one run in the third inning.

James Trichell drove in the first run with an RBI double and scored on a single by Steed.

“I’m really proud of the way our guys responded offensively, I thought it was really key in letting Lane (Hubbard) settle in there on the mound, and letting Josh Collins get some more work in there at the last inning,” Naron said. “Definitely, being able to win in that fashion, we’ll definitely take it.”

The offensive attack was balanced for the Flashes, with Phillips, Collins, Tyler Breithaupt and Brandon Steed each contributing two hits and one RBI.

On the mound, Hubbard had five strikeouts and allowed three hits and one earned run in four innings, while Collins allowed one hit and struck out two in his one inning of work.

“I think that was a big improvement for Lane, I think one of his biggest things is that he’s gaining more confidence,” Naron said. He only walked one guy today, and I thought his stuff was really good after the first inning. He was able to find his slider and changeup and locate, which really kept them off-balance, and I feel like he’s only going to get better. Being a 10th grader, young guy, he’s really matured quite quickly.”

Hubbard thought he delivered a solid outing.

“Think it was pretty good. There’s some work to do. Glad my team was there to help back me up with things I needed,” Hubbard said.

St. Al has what is basically an off week coming up, with its next game coming on April 3 against Riverfield Academy. Naron hoped his team could take advantage of the time off.

“We have to get a couple of guys fully healthy, so it comes at a good time,” Naron said. “Good time for them to recoup a little bit and get back in and focus on some smaller details fundamentally that we feel have cost us some runs in some games, and caused us to give away some at-bats at the plate, and definitely be focusing on the next week and into the next game.”

Hubbard also saw a good opportunity for improvement during the lull, and felt the team was entering it at the right time after their lopsided victory over Hillcrest.

“I think it’s a great way to go into the break and get to see your errors and what your mistakes are, get to work on them, try to perfect them, and hopefully you come back and you don’t make them again,” Hubbard said.

PCA 8, Central Hinds 7

Bradley McCullough went 2-for-4 with a double and three runs scored, Cole Pittman was 3-for-4 with a double, RBI and a run scored, and Porter’s Chapel Academy (7-8, 3-3 District 3-AAA) upset Central Hinds.

PCA — which lost 12-2 to the Cougars on Monday — rallied from an early three-run deficit on Tuesday. Brayden Ray hit an RBI double and two errors allowed four runs to score as the Eagles scored six times in the top of the third inning.

Pittman’s RBI single in the sixth gave PCA an 8-6 lead, and they dodged a solo home run by David Barton in the seventh to hang on.

Beau Coumbe went 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored for Central Hinds.

“The best thing is it’s just a great team win against a good team,” PCA coach Wade Patrick said. “It showed we can play and compete with good teams when we play our best. We can’t worry about the playoffs or anything like that. We have to play game to game.”

PCA will return to action Monday, at home against Canton Academy at 7 p.m. It will then play a home-and-home district series with Park Place, Tuesday at 6 p.m. at PCA and April 5 in Pearl at 4 p.m.

Tallulah 16, Briarfield 0

Joshua Collins hit a grand slam and finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs, and Logan Tullos hit a solo home run as Tallulah Academy (5-5) routed Briarfield Academy on Monday.
Ty Schaufele threw a no-hitter in the three-inning, mercy-rule shortened game. He struck out four batters and walked one.

Will Hill went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs scored for Tallulah, which had 13 hits total. Tullos also was 3-for-3 and scored three times, while Hager Fortenberry doubled, tripled, scored two runs and drove in two.