NATCHEZ — The Cathedral Lady Wave softball team has made a habit of coming back from early deficits to win this season.

But Thursday, the deficit was too big and the opponent was too strong for any comeback to happen.

Cathedral got down 5-0 to Franklin County before rallying some in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Lady Wave scored a run and loaded the bases with two outs before grounding out to end the game, falling 5-1 to the Lady Bulldogs.

“We got behind early,” Cathedral coach Gary Blackwell said. “And against a team like Franklin County, it’s hard to come back. We battled back in the last inning and got some runners on, but we had too big of a hole to climb out of.”

Cathedral only collected two hits in the game as the combination of Franklin County pitcher Destiny Dedeaux and the good defense of the Green Wave batters.

“She did a great job on the mound,” Franklin County coach Dana Smith said. “And our defense has been pretty sound all season.”

Blackwell said Dedeaux didn’t allow the Cathedral batters to hit any line drives.

In fact, there was only one hard hit ball the entire game, Ginny Daggett’s single in the first inning.

The other Cathedral hit was an infield hit by Beth Fortenbery in the seventh.

“She was throwing the ball to get us to hit the ball on the ground,” Blackwell said. “That’s what she’s supposed to do.”

Cathedral’s Mollie Devening also pitched a good game, allowing just five hits, with three of those coming in the top of the first inning when Franklin County jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

“Mollie pitched very well,” Blackwell said. “She did a good job of keeping the ball down and making them hit ground balls.”

Franklin County jumped out in the top of the first inning.

The first two hitters, Kacey Smith and Keke Collins singled to lead off the game.

Later in the inning, with Smith and Collins on second and third, Karlee Mullins laid down a bunt that scored Smith. Collins then scored when the throw got away at first base.

That’s how the score stayed until the top of the sixth inning, when Franklin County played two more runs.

Collins led off the inning with a single, took second on a wild pitch and then scored on an error.

Later in the inning, Lay Lay Griffin had an RBI groundout that scored Mullins, making the score 4-0.

The Lady Bulldogs tacked on their final run in the top of the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Smith.

Cathedral tried to fight back in the bottom of the seventh. Kimble Devening led off the inning with a single, advanced to second and third on a pair of groundouts and scored on a wild pitch.

Cathedral then loaded the bases thanks to a walk, single by Fortenbery and catcher’s interference, but were unable to push anymore runners across.

Franklin County improved its record to 8-0 while Cathedral fell to 4-2.

Cathedral will play again next Tuesday when they host Vicksburg.