NATCHEZ — Madi Smith had an up-and-down outing on the mound for Brookhaven Academy, yet she somehow pitched four straight scoreless innings as the Lady Cougars escaped with an 8-5 win over the Cathedral High School Lady Green Wave Thursday afternoon in the MAIS District 4-4A opener for both teams.

Smith gave up five earned runs on 10 hits and walked eight batters. However, Cathedral was not able to take advantage of her shaky performance when it needed to. That’s because she also struck out seven batters.

After the first inning ended in a 2-2 tie, the Lady Cougars’ bats came alive in the top of the third inning as they scored three runs off Lady Green Wave starting pitcher Anna Poole for a 5-2 lead.  Brookhaven Academy added to its lead in the top of the fifth and sixth innings for an 8-2 lead. Abby Grace Richardson led the Lady Cougars at the plate with two home runs while Bailee Goodson was 3-for-4 with a double and a home run.

Cathedral tried to come back in the latter stages of the game, but only managed one run in the bottom of the sixth inning and two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Lauren Dunbar went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, and four runs batted in. Allie Feltus went 3-for-4 for the Lady Green Wave.

Poole allowed eight runs, seven of them earned, on seven hits with three strikeouts and three walks.

Cathedral (1-4, 0-1) plays two games on Saturday at the Amite School Center Tournament at Vance Ethel Park in Liberty, first against Bowling Green School at 10 a.m., then against Oak Forest Academy at 11:30 a.m.