NATCHEZ — Cathedral High School pushed through its first nine games of the year without playing at home.

The wait turned out to be worth it.

In its 10th game, Cathedral broke a fifth-inning tie with a two-run rally and managed to hang on for a 3-2 win over MAIS District 4-3A rival Simpson Academy Monday night.

“We had been playing for a month, and we still hadn’t played at home,” Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said. “But it was an exciting game … I’m glad we were able to come out on top in this one.”

The win proved to be a pivotal one as the Green Wave (7-3, 3-1) fell to the Cougars 2-1 in an extra-inning game last week.

“You didn’t want to go down two games to Simpson this early in the season with still some great teams to play after this,” Beesley said. “But I thought (pitcher) Sam (Parker) kept us in the game, just like he did last week. And we got some timely hits.”

Perhaps the biggest hit came in Cathedral’s fifth-inning rally from Zach Flattmann. The senior catcher laced a base hit to left field, scoring teammates Andrew Beesley and Gabe Smith and pushing his squad ahead 3-1.

“I was little worried, but (the pitcher) threw one up and out, and I just poked it into the outfield and scored two runs.

“To play a good opponent and win, it really proves something. We’re coming into this new league, and we’re not used to this kind of competition, but we’re getting some (wins), and it’s good stuff.”

Parker did the rest from there as he limited the Cougars over the final two innings.

“(Parker) did really good, and his off-speed (pitches) were working a lot better compared to last week,” Flattman said of his pitcher. “Last week, he really struggled with is off-speed, but this week he was able to mix it up.”

Simpson jumped ahead of Cathedral 1-0 in the top of the first. The Cougars had chances in each of the third and the fourth with a runner on third base to expand their leads to 2-0, but Parker managed to record strikeouts to each threat.

“He’s been consistent for us all year,” Beesley said. “We feel like if we can get three or four runs for him, then we are going to be in the game every time.”

Cathedral tied the game in the bottom of the fourth after Jardarius Anderson looped a single into left field that scored Pate Shirley.

“We got some big hits with runners in scoring position,” Beesley said.

Parker tossed a complete game, allowing nine hits while striking out six batters.

Cathedral will continue district play Thursday when it hosts Adams County Christian School.

“It’s supposed to rain Wednesday and Thursday,” Beesley said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we got rained out, the way our season has been going. Hopefully, we’ll get it in and get on a little roll.”