Cathedral High School needed nothing but a fast start Monday night to take down a sailing Natchez Bulldog baseball team.
Despite a four-run lead through three innings, the Bulldogs battled back to notch their fifth straight win, 6-5.
“We looked a lot more confident tonight,” Green Wave coach Craig Beesley said. “We were able to make some plays and had some good approaches at the plate early in the game. We just had a mental lapse for about five minutes.

“Once they had the lead on us, I knew it was going to be tough for us to come back.”
While the Green Wave started with a load of poise, Natchez gained the lead for the first time on the night as Paul Hargrave blasted a two-run hit to deep center field in the bottom of the fifth.
Hargraves’ two-out blast was nearly caught on a dive by Cathedral center fielder, Sam Mosby, but the drop allowed the Bulldog junior to run all the way back to home plate.
“I thought he caught that. I was mad,” Hargrave said laughing. “As soon as someone kept telling me to go, I just took off running.”
Beesley said the miss was just pure chance.

“Everybody thought he caught it,” he said. “It was a great effort. He was just a couple inches away.”

Cathedral attempted a comeback as it advanced runners to second and third base in the bottom of the seventh with one out. However, Caden Poole was tagged out on a run to home, and the Green Wave’s final batter Hollis Lees was thrown out at first.

Though Natchez coach Dan Smith wasn’t sure what caused his team to seem sluggish in the beginning of the game — reaching a base for the first time on a Shavoké Herrington triple in the third inning — he said he wants his team to simply move on.

The Bulldogs are set to travel to Brookhaven today for a varsity doubleheader to start at 5 p.m.

“I don’t know if they were just tired, or what,” Smith said. “But, at the end of the day Cathedral is a good program. It might have been a little bit of us, but it might have been a little bit of them, too.

“I told them to just go home and think about the next ones. I want two of them, but I would be OK with a split.”

Natchez also danced around pitchers Monday, starting eight-grader Devin Winchester, filling in with senior Tra Davis and closing with Herrington.

“Devin did a great job. I’m just trying to get him in the rotation,” Smith said. “He went three innings, and for my expectation he did well. But, we need everybody for today.”

Hargrave is set to pitch today’s Game 1, expecting for Natchez (12-4, 3-0) to stay perfect in district.

“It’s going to be our biggest test yet,” he said. “I hope we can get two wins.”

As the Green Wave move forward, Beesley hopes his team can hold on to its early lead in future games.

Cathedral won’t play until next Monday when it hosts Silliman Institute.

“I just preach to them to add runs,” Beesley said. “If we could just add one or two an inning, that would be big. We just aren’t swinging it well enough to get back-to-back hits.”

Beesley also said he wants his team to be aware of its pitching. Senior Conner Branton pitched the loss for the Green Wave in six innings, recording six strikeouts.

“I think we are playing the best we have been playing all year,” Beesley said. “Conner is a dog on the mound. Every time I put him out there, I feel like I have a chance to win. He had a great game, we just couldn’t come up with it.”