NATCHEZ — Sam Parker was more than aware he would be in for a challenge when his squad faced MAIS rival Columbia Academy.

The Cathedral High School pitcher proved he was more than up to the task.

Parker tossed seven strong innings and the Green Wave offense came up with just enough timely hitting to beat the Cougars 4-1 Saturday night.

“These kind of games, this is what we all live for,” Parker said. “We love these kind of games … I’ve been waiting for it all year.”

The lanky, right-handed hurler allowed just two hits in the game while striking out nine batters. Parker allowed zero earned runs.

“They’ve got some big guys over there, and they can swing the sticks,” said Parker, who also allowed eight walks. “That affected me mainly, and I was just all over the plate … But then I was able to settle down and I told myself, ‘Just let your stuff go.’”

With the win, Cathedral improves to 12-3 overall and 6-3 in district play. Columbia falls to 13-5 and 6-1 in district.

“We knew it was going to be a tight game, and they have a very good hitting club,” Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said. “Sam struggled a little bit (Saturday) with his command, but he only gave up (zero) earned runs, so I can’t complain about that.”

Cathedral jumped out to a 2-1 lead through four innings after Andrew Beesley scored on a wild pitch in the first, and Gabe smith smacked a run-scoring single to right in the second.

The big play in the game came in the top of the fifth when a Parker fastball got past catcher Zach Flattman with a runner on third and one out. The senior backstop raced to pick up the errant throw and slung it to Parker at home plate, who eventually tagged out the Cougar base runner after he slid over home plate.

“Not much gets past Zach; he’s a brick wall back there,” Parker said. “I knew I didn’t tag (the runner) at first, so I was a little down. But I saw the umpire standing there and he hadn’t made a call yet, so I knew something was up, so I just went and tagged the guy, and (the umpire) said, ‘Out.’”

Cathedral then tacked on two runs in the bottom of the frame, thanks to its small-ball offense and a pivotal throwing error from Columbia that allowed Brock Farmer to score from second base. Reed White then got Jacob Jenkins home with a squeeze play, giving his team a three-run advantage.

“Once we got the lead, we were just trying to add runs,” Craig said. “We did a good job of executing small ball (Saturday). We had three (sacrifice) bunts and one squeeze bunt … We’ve been working on our (sacrifice) bunts, and it paid off (Saturday).”

Columbia threatened again in the top of the sixth when it loaded the bases with only one out. Parker, however, managed to come up big when his team needed him the most as he struck out the final two batters of the inning to end the threat.

“That’s what it’s all about right there,” Parker said. “I love big situations like that. I don’t love getting in them, but once I’m in them, I love working out of them.”

Andrew and Craig Bradley led the Green Wave with two hits apiece.

“We knew coming in that this was pretty much this biggest game of the year,” Bradley said. “We knew we had to get (one game) ahead of them, so they had to fight back with one loss. We just came in focused and ready to play.”

Bradley nearly had a third hit after sending a deep fly ball to left field in his first at-bat that nearly left the field of play.

“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit,” Bradley said. “They gave me some fastballs to hit, and my first at-bat, they threw me a changeup inside, and I thought I got all of it.”

Cathedral will put its six-game winning streak on the line Monday when it hosts Wilkinson County Christian Academy.

“I feel like we’re coming together chemistry-wise as a team,” Craig said. “Everybody’s kind of gelling right now, and hopefully we can keep it going.”