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NATCHEZ — Last week was a tough week for Cathedral High School’s varsity baseball team after starting the season 8-0. First, the Green Wave lost to the Parklane Academy Pioneers 4-1 last Wednesday night at Parklane Academy in McComb. Then last Thursday night, they fell at home to the Brookhaven Academy Cougars 15-10.

In the loss to Brookhaven Academy at Chester Willis Field, Cathedral was on a roll and playing much better than it did at Parklane Academy just 24 hours earlier. The Green Wave scored one run in the bottom of the first inning and then two runs each in the bottom of the second, third, and fourth innings to grab a 7-0 lead.

Green Wave pitching and good defense kept the Cougars off the scoreboard for the first four innings. Then Brookhaven Academy exploded for 13 runs in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead for good. It was something even Cathedral head coach Andrew Beesley could not have foreseen.

“They had 13 runs on no errors. They were hitting little seeing-eye singles and then hit a shot. There were a few hit batters there. It’s hard to come back after giving up that many runs,” Beesley said. “To be honest, it’s as clean of a game as you can get and still lose.”

The Green Wave tried to make a comeback. They scored one run in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it a 13-8 game, but the Cougars tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth to go ahead 15-8. Cathedral scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but it was not enough.

“You don’t take moral victories, ever. But it’s one of those game where I thought we played a clean game. We have a really young team and it’s one of those learning moments for them you have to stop the bleeding when things aren’t going your way,” Beesley said.

Avery Griffin was the winning pitcher for Brookhaven Academy while Tripp Wimberly was charged with the loss for Cathedral. The Cougars won despite committing four errors. On the other hand, the Green Wave did not commit a single error the entire game.

Jackson Navarro led the Green Wave at the plate by going 4-for-5 with a double while Landon French was 2-for-4 with a double and Owen Jordan was 2-for-4. As a team, Cathedral belted out 10 base hits.

Caleb Authement was 2-for-3 with a double, Matt Newman went 3-for-5, and Liam Magee was 2-for-4 to lead the Cougars’ 12-hit barrage.

“We played a really clean ball game. We did everything we could right,” Beesley said. “But that one inning, everything fell their way and we couldn’t recover from it. Brookhaven Academy has a good pitching staff.”

Oddly enough, Cathedral (8-2) took on Brookhaven Academy at 2 p.m. Monday at the Spring Break @ Southwest Mississippi Community College Tournament in Summit.

In the loss at Parklane Academy last Wednesday, Walker Probst had a double and Ethan Keith was the losing pitcher.

Beesley said the Green Wave came out with very little energy and it showed — not only at the plate, but in the field.

“I just thought we came out sluggish. We didn’t play as a team. We made six errors. We you make six errors, it’s hard to win a ball game,” Beesley said.

The loss to the Pioneers was the first setback of the season for Cathedral.