Cathedral School’s Conner Branton needed something, anything, to make Monday night feel not so gloomy.

The Green Wave pitcher did his best to hold on as his team trailed by just two runs in the top of the fourth inning — until.

“I thought, ‘Well, that was a base hit,” Branton said.

Silliman Institute’s Trey Hunt in fact reached not only first base, but knocked a ground bouncing double to drive in three runs and give the Wildcats a five-run lead they would not give up.

While Branton lasted not much longer on the mound — rounding out at 3.2 innings pitched — he said his senior night wasn’t as bad as it may have looked as the Green Wave ultimately fell in six innings, 11-1.

“I had to put everything in tonight,” he said. “On the pitching mound, you have to keep your control and you can’t let anything affect you. If you let something like that mess with you, it’s just going to mess up the rest of your game.”

As Branton made his way to center field after recording six strikeouts, yet walking eight batters, he knew he would have to pick up the pace.

Branton took to the plate in the bottom of the fourth and watched four balls pass him by. After strolling to first base, he eventually slid his way into home plate on a Silliman catching error in right field.

“At least we got one on the board,” Branton said.

Replacing Branton on the mound to finish out the game was Green Wave freshman Sam Mosby and the sight, he said, was simply a testament to all he and fellow senior Caden Poole have had to endure this season.

“It’s just a bunch of young guys,” Branton said. “But, Sam is a good pitcher and I had confidence when he came in. Hopefully with time, these guys can do something we didn’t get to do.”

After the run scored, Branton wasn’t quite done making his mark. In the sixth inning, the senior perfectly fielded a fly ball and made a gallant throw all the way to home plate for the double play.

“That was a big one to put us back at bat,” Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said. “He’s just a good ball player.”

With just six games remaining, Beesley said he hopes Cathedral (1-14, 1-3) can muster up a few more wins before saying goodbye to Branton and Poole.

“We are going to miss them both,” he said. “They’ve battled the whole year, so hopefully we can pull out a few more wins along the way.”

Branton’s senior night ended as he walked up to bat for the final time Monday. With two outs and two strikes, Branton took a big swing but came up with nothing.

“That’s OK,” he said. “A bad day of baseball is better than a good day of doing nothing.”