NATCHEZ — Since mid-December, the Cathedral baseball team has had all eyes on them.

With last year’s team making a trip to Trustmark Park to play in the MHSAA Class 1A State Championship series and this year’s football team claiming a state title in Starkville, many Cathedral faithful began wondering if this was the year for baseball.

Now, the Green Wave have a chance to write their own historic ending, as they begin their quest for their own championship Wednesday.

“You come through and win a state championship in football and went to Trustmark last year in baseball, then beat Stringer like we just did, all eyes are on you,” Green Wave catcher Zach Flattmann said. “Everybody is looking at us, and we have a target on our back, but I’m ready for it.”

For head coach Craig Beesley, he knew the talent was there a long time ago, but now his job is to make sure he brings home the ultimate prize with it.

“We knew we had a good group of kids and we were hoping to get back (to the championship series) after last year,” Beesley said. “We had three good seniors last year that gave us good leadership and got us to Trustmark, and this year, we are hoping to go and get a little payback for them and finish what we though we could’ve done last year.”

Cathedral’s roster is filled with talent, primarily juniors and sophomores.

“We started four sophomores and two freshmen last year, so they are a year older and a bit more experienced,” Beesley said. “We feel like hopefully this will be our year.”

But for all the pressure that falls on the middle classes, one senior in particular has had to shoulder quite a bit, and that is Quinton Logan.

Logan, who transferred to Cathedral for his senior year, knew he would be relied upon to have an immediate impact on the team.

“All the pressure kind of fell on me and I knew I couldn’t lay down and let everybody down,” he said. “When they added me to the team, people thought we were going to get (to the state championship) again, but I knew we were going to have to work. It wasn’t an automatic win. We had to work for it.”

The Green Wave suffered just four losses in the regular season and were ranked as the No. 1 in Class 1A for a majority of the year, but Beesley said having a target on their back didn’t phase the team.

“We knew a lot of teams would be shooting for us this year because of how far we went last year, but the kids have responded to that pressure,” Beesley said. “At any time, anyone on this team can succeed for us. It isn’t the same person every night, and that is the good thing about this group of kids. They play well together. They succeeded in football, and now we hope it is time in baseball.”

Both Beesley and the team know the stakes and expectations are high, but they know what their mission is and plan on executing it.

“The kids are pretty level headed and they understand what we are trying to accomplish,” Beesley said. “I think not only them, but everybody, will be disappointed if we don’t finish this off.”