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VICKSBURG — Noah Russ pitched five innings of two-hit ball and Jake Maples had another stellar performance at the plate as the Cathedral High School Green Wave overcame a slow start to beat the rival St. Aloysius High School Flashes 12-1 last Tuesday afternoon in an MAIS District 3-5A match-up.

Russ got the start and held St. Aloysius to no runs on two singles, struck out five batters and walked none over his five innings to pick up the win. And with Flashes starting pitcher Matthew Pitre holding Cathedral scoreless over the first three innings, it looked like the game was going to be a pitcher’s duel.

“I thought we looked pretty well as a team. We were a little sloppy with our defense. And we’re a good defensive team,” Green Wave head coach Andrew Beesley said. “We hit the ball a little better than we have lately.”

A little better? How about 14 total base hits. Maples led the way, going 3-for-4 with an RBI triple in the top of the sixth inning. Josh Ingram went 2-for-4 with a double wile Walker Probst was 2-for-2. Well Welch went 2-for-3, Jackson Navarro was 2-for-5, and Jack Lewis had a double.

That helped Cathedral offset a surprising four errors, even though those didn’t turn out to hurt the Green Wave thanks to their offensive output and their strong pitching. The scored four runs off Pitre in the top of the fourth inning and ran him out of the game after scoring two runs in the top of the fifth.

Pitce went four-plus innings and gave up six earned runs on seven hits with four strikeout and four walks.

“We had a lot of guys on base the first three innings, but we couldn’t get anyone in,” Beesley said. “We finally got a little relaxed after that and scored some runs. We ran the bases well, which put some pressure on our defense.”

As for Russ’s performance on the mound, Beesley said, “I thought he was sharp on the mound. He came out throwing strikes. They put him in play a little earlier, but, overall, I thought he had a sharp performance. Matt Kaiser pitched two-thirds of an inning and Jacob Smith came in and got the last four outs.”

The Green Wave scored two runs each in the top of the fifth and sixth innings to go up 8-0 before the Flashes scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Cathedral scored four runs in the top of the seventh.

“There were a lot of positives to take from the game. We’ve got a shot at the district title if we keep playing like this,” Beesley said.

Cathedral (17-4, 6-4) hosted St. Aloysius at Chester Wills Field on Thursday with the junior varsity game at 4:30 p.m., followed by the varsity game at 6:30 p.m. The Green Wave then travels to Vicksburg to take on the Flashes with the JV game at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity game at 6:30 p.m.