NATCHEZ — A year ago, the Cathedral Green Wave were dealing with being swept in the MHSAA Class 1A State Championship series.

But Thursday night, Cathedral secured their spot in the championship series for the second year in a row with a 14-4 win against Stringer, and they are all business moving forward.

“Last year, we were just happy to get to state,” Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. “But this year, we are going to redeem ourselves. I feel like we have something in our minds that we want to go accomplish next week.”

The only thing standing between the Green Wave and a championship berth was Stringer, and Cathedral was able to make easy work of the Red Devils in just five innings Thursday.

The Green Wave jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first on an RBI-single from Zach Flattmann, a two-run single from Pate Shirley and an RBI-single from Brock Farmer.

Stringer scratched across a run in the top of the second, but Cathedral erupted for another big inning in the bottom of the second adding two more runs on four hits.

Andrew Beesley led off with a double, and Craig Bradley knocked him in with a single. Later, Flattmann recorded his second RBI-single of the night to push the lead to 6-1.

“I was really pleased with the way we swung the bat,” Beesley said. “The bats really came alive for us today and I was proud of the way we swung it.”

But the comfortable lead soon turned into a close game as Stringer battled back in the third.

After getting two quick outs, Cathedral starting pitcher Sam Parker ran into trouble after walking Stringer’s one and two-hole hitters. Brett Welborn then came to the plate and roped a two-run double that cut the deficit to 6-3.

Beesley then went to the bullpen for Gabe Smith, who allowed an RBI-double, but was lights out the rest of the way.

“Gabe was able to come in and throw strikes,” Beesley said. “The only reason I went and got Sam was because he had walked two with two outs and then they got the big double. At that time, I know how good of a hitting team Stringer is, and we couldn’t give them a chance to get back in the game, so I went to Gabe and he was big for us.”

Although their lead had been cut into, the Green Wave didn’t panic, and it was senior Quinton Logan who made sure of it.

“I just tried to keep everybody up,” Logan said. “We needed to have life in the dugout.”

Logan provided that life in the bottom of the fourth.

After a single from Flattmann, his third of the night, Logan stepped to the plate and worked his way to a full count.

“Coach said, ‘You know what is coming,’ and I nodded my head,” Logan said. “I knew it was coming. It was a curveball, and I made him pay for it.”

Logan connected on the 3-2 curve and launched it over the wall in right-center field to push the Green Wave lead to 8-4.

But the big fourth inning was far from over for Cathedral.

The Green Wave were able to score three more runs, to bring their total to five in the inning and put the game seemingly out of reach at 11-4.

With Smith in control on the mound, the Green Wave offense went to work in the fifth.

Farmer padded the lead with his second RBI-single and Smith put the game away on a walk-off 2-run single.

Cathedral will take on the winner of the Ingomar and Smithville series in the championship series, and Beesley said his team is more ready than they have ever been.

“We are prepared this year,” he said. “Last year, we were young and had some bulldog seniors that gave us some great leadership. But this year, these kids have all been there. They’ve experienced it, and they are going there to win, not just glad to be there. We are going to win.”