NATCHEZ — After winning a game apiece during the regular season against each other, Natchez High School and Cathedral High School looked to earn final bragging rights Thursday night.

Instead, the two teams had to settle for a 7-7 tie and wait until next spring to settle the matter.

The Green Wave jumped out to an early 7-1 lead, but the Bulldogs begin to claw back in the later innings to force the tie at the end of six in the Cathedral summer tournament. With the tournament games having an hour-and-45-minute time limit, the tie ended up being the final score.

Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said he would prefer his players not having to fight to maintain a lead.

“I was a little disappointed with how we ended the game,” Beesley said. “Up until the sixth inning I thought we played well, we just don’t have that mentality of putting teams away, and it came back to get us tonight.”

NHS head coach Brian Kossum said he was glad to work out three of his pitchers for two innings apiece: Travez Lyles, Chris Scott and Shavoke Herrington.

“Pitching is a big focus for us this summer,” Kossum said. “(Lyles) showed a lot of rust in his two innings, but Chris Scott and Shavoke Herrington came in and threw great. Those are two guys that are going into the eighth grade next year, and that’s exciting.”

Natchez High’s Jerell Morris scored the first run of the game on a fielder’s choice by Shavoke Herrington in the top of the first.

Cathedral scored five of its seven runs in the bottom of the first, with Craig Bradley scoring on an error and Andrew Beesley coming home on a fielder’s choice by Brock Farmer. A single by Jacob Jenkins plated Hayden Nunnery and Pate Shirley, and Hunter Randall’s RBI single scored Jenkins.

Cathedral added two more runs in the bottom of the second when an infield single by Nunnery sent home Brett Brown and Weadock came home on a passed ball.

Natchez High began its comeback in the fifth inning, when an infield single by Jamario Ashley scored Skeeter Lyles and a Lee Jackson infield single plated Ashley, making it 7-3 Cathedral.

The Bulldogs tied it up in the top of the sixth, with Derrick Lewis scoring first on a passed ball. Morris tallied a single to send home Myles, and Morris and Tydarrius Terrell both came in on a single by Dalvion Jackson.

Lyles, Scott and Herrington all went two innings apiece for NHS. Gabe Smith got the start for Cathedral, going three innings, and Reed White and Hayden Nunnery also threw for the Green Wave.

Day two of the Cathedral summer tournament is tonight, with Adams County Christian School and Franklin County High School playing at 6 p.m. and Cathedral and ACCS playing at 8 p.m.