NATCHEZ &045; Already short-handed when it comes to pitching, Natchez High did what it didn’t want to do Friday.

The Bulldogs went through three pitchers in an 18-2 loss in five innings to Lawrence County with a game on tap for 11 a.m. today against Franklin County and their Division 6-5A opener Tuesday against Vicksburg. One pitcher left the game with a sore shoulder, and another couldn’t get his control down early in the game.

The Bulldogs may put up just one pitcher today for Franklin County and try to hold on.

&uot;I’ve got two for tomorrow,&uot; Natchez High head coach Charlie Williams said. &uot;I’m hoping I don’t have to use but one of them because we have Vicksburg Tuesday. We want to save one for Vicksburg. One got suspended, and I’m really short now. But we weren’t deep at the beginning.&uot;

And leave it to a team like Lawrence County to exploit that and take a big lead early. The Cougars (6-1) were able to move some pitchers around for the Friday game as they face a tough slate ahead themselves &045; they’ll play Amite, La., and Jewel Sumner, La., today in McComb in a tournament.

Fortunately for the Cougars, they burned only two pitchers thanks to the Bulldogs’ problems at the plate. Jeremy Williams got the start and went into the third before Mackenzie Woods finished it out.

&uot;(Woods) came in and did well,&uot; Lawrence County head coach Cory Keyes said. &uot;He threw strikes when we needed strikes, and he got outs when we needed outs. That was (Williams’) first varsity start. He had never pitched an inning on varsity. He pitched a couple of innings, got a lead and did what we needed him to do.

&uot;We’ve got a doubleheader tomorrow. We’re trying to rest up our pitching for that. We’ve got guys who can throw strikes. Nobody is going to blow it by anyone. We’re going to have to play defense behind them.&uot;

Both pitchers kept the Bulldogs (4-5) guessing a bit at the plate, although Williams had more struggles with his command than Woods did. Both the Bulldogs’ runs were charged to Williams after he walked four before leaving after he walked the leadoff man in the third.

Ja-Mes Logan scored the Bulldogs’ first run in the first after he walked, stole second and scored on C.J. Wright single. Edward Johnson walked to lead off the third and scored on an error on a ball hit by Logan.

But the Bulldogs had just two hits and couldn’t answer after Lawrence County scored six runs in the first inning off starter C.J. Wright and scored in every inning off relievers Cameron Logan and Johnny Williams.

&uot;We just lost focus,&uot; Charlie Williams said. &uot;They lost it after that first inning. We’ll get it back and regroup for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll get back on the plus side and win one. This was the worst we’ve been hitting all year. Their kid, not to put him down, didn’t have a whole lot of stuff. We didn’t have hitting on our minds.&uot;

The Cougars kept putting the ball in play and forced the Bulldogs to make eight errors in the contest, although none came in the first after Wright walked four and hit a batter.

The Cougars got six in the first off two hits, including a Joseph Evans triple that scored Jake Russell and Marty Ballard.

The first two batters in the second reached on an error, and Michael Thompson singled in the first run before Nick Jackson walked to load the bases with no outs. Cameron Logan entered the game and struck out the next guy before getting Russell to ground out to second to score Thompson.

Two more runs scored as three errors buoyed the Cougars’ five-run inning for an 11-1 lead heading into the bottom of the second.

&uot;We’ve been hitting the ball pretty well lately,&uot; Keyes said. &uot;Our goal has been to cut our strikeouts down. We’ve been striking out too much. We got off to a pretty good start. We’re not playing bad, really. I’ve been telling my guys this weekend is going to tell what we’re made of. When you play three games in 24 hours, you’ve got to be mentally tough.&uot;