NATCHEZ — Congratulations, celebration, cupcakes and a cold ice-water shower greeted Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley Wednesday afternoon.

Beesley’s Green Wave baseball team cruised past Natchez High School 12-1 in four innings for Beesley’s 200th career win.

“It feels good,” Beesley said. “I’ve had some great players, and it all goes back to the players. Two-hundred wins is a lot, but I couldn’t do it without great players.”

Beesley said the accomplishment is special, but it only puts him half way to the career mark his father, Ken Beesley, set.

“I still have a long way to go,” he said. “He had 401, so I’m halfway there.”

Cathedral jumped out to a comfortable lead early in the game by scoring nine runs in the top of the first inning.

The big hit came off the bat of Kyle Bradley, who tripled with the bases loaded to give the Green Wave a 3-0 lead.

Thomas Garrity had two hits in the inning, and his second was a single that drove in two runs. Garrity and Caleb Upton each scored twice in the inning. Blake Martin, Bradley, Trevor Farmer, Ty Brown and Daniel Huffines also scored in the inning.

“We swung the bats well early in the game,” Beesley said.

The Green Wave tacked on two more runs in the second inning and one in the third to start the game with a 12-0 lead.

Cathedral finished with 10 hits, but were also helped by three Natchez errors, and Bulldogs’ head coach Skip Golding said a lot of the miscues were due to lack of practice.

“We were real rusty on defense,” he said. “We haven’t gotten on the field because of the weather.”

Golding said Bradley’s bases-loaded triple off starter Derrian Johnson set the tone in the contest.

“(Johnson) got in some trouble and gave up some untimely hits,” Golding said. “We load the bases, and (Bradley) hits a triple, and that really got things going for them.”

Natchez threatened to score a couple of runs in the bottom of the second. Larry Singleton, Denzel Washington and Trevonte Green each singled in the inning. But the Bulldogs left the bases loaded without pushing a run across.

Garrity picked up the win for Cathedral. He went three innings and gave up no runs on four hits. He also went 3-for-3 at the plate.

Austin Chauvin also tripled for the Green Wave.

Natchez scored its run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Lee Jackson was hit by a pitch and came around to score on an error.

Cathedral (11-6, 5-1) will face Franklin County at home today. Natchez (4-10, 2-6) will open its first-round playoff series Friday against St. Martin.