NATCHEZ — Thomas Garrity fielded the popup to end the game and breathed a sigh of relief afterward.

After cruising through the first six innings, the Cathedral High School starting pitcher ran into a little bit of trouble in the top of the seventh Thursday evening. Garrity had a 4-1 lead against Resurrection Catholic School in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1A playoffs, but a few hits and walks caused the lead to shrink to 4-3 with the tying run on third.

Garrity buckled down, however, and got Resurrection’s Christian Miller on an infield popup for out three to secure the win and give the Green Wave (13-8) a 1-0 lead in its three-game series with the Eagles.

“I was thankful we got out of that last inning,” Garrity said afterward. “It started to get bad.”

Resurrection cut the lead to 4-2 when an RBI single by Travis Avara sent home Antonio Lee with one out in the top of the seventh. Garrity secured out two, and it looked like out three would come on an infield popup by Whit Davis. But a fielding error allowed Cameron Lane to round third and score, making it 4-3.

Garrity got the win for Cathedral, going all seven innings and giving up three runs — two earned — on give hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

“He had a good outing,” Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. “They put a few runs on the board in the seventh inning. We made some mistakes behind him, but the top of their order hits the ball well.”

Cathedral fell behind early 1-0 when Resurrection’s Tyler Williamson hit a solo home run in the top of the first inning. Garrity said the home run affected his mentality on the mound at first, but he settled down as the innings went on.

“The first couple of innings, I kept thinking about it,” Garrity said. “Then after about the third inning after we had gotten a couple of runs on the board, I didn’t think about it anymore.”

The Green Wave took the lead in the bottom of the second inning when Andrew Beesley drew a bases-loaded walk to send home Hayden Nunnery. Jardarius Anderson also scored on a fielding error.

Cathedral added two more runs in the bottom of the third when Kyle Bradley came home on a single by Austin Chauvin and Chauvin scored on a fielder’s choice.

Despite the early home run, Garrity met little resistance in innings two through six, and he said his fastball was his go-to pitch.

“I couldn’t get the curveball over the plate, and the fastball was the only thing that was working,” Garrity said. “They were hitting the outside fastball, but they couldn’t touch that inside fastball.”

Ty Brown finished the game 2-for-4 with a double, and Nunnery and Chauvin both went 2-for-3.

Despite the win, Craig Beesley said he was disappointing in his team’s mental approach Thursday evening.

“We just didn’t act like we were ready to play a playoff game,” Beesley said. “I thought we’d come out with a little more energy than we did.”

Game 2 of the series will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Resurrection. Game 3, if necessary, will immediately follow.