NATCHEZ &045; There are no key seniors or other players that really make Cathedral softball go this season, and Erin Binns may just prefer it that way.

This year’s Lady Wave has just three seniors and a handful of sophomore and juniors with the remainder of the roster going as young as seventh grade. But the team has come together and jelled here near the end of the regular season and may get into the playoffs as a No. 3 seed.

The team’s progress since the summer explains a doubleheader sweep of Franklin County Tuesday by scores of 14-0 and 21-2.

&uot;I know we’ve improved,&uot; said Binns, the Lady Wave’s first-year head coach. &uot;It’s just a work in progress. You’re supposed to come to your peak in the playoffs, and we’re hoping that’s what’s happening with us.

&uot;We’re real young. We’ve got some leadership, but I’ve been preaching to them all year you play as a team, you lose as a team and you win as a team. They play better when they play as a team.&uot;

That point was obvious in Tuesday’s doubleheader as the Lady Wave finished off the struggling Lady Bulldogs in the doubleheader by playing a combined eight innings. Hitting has been the biggest stumbling block for the Lady Wave, but that certainly was not the case Tuesday.

And it’s been kind of that way recently. The Lady Wave has the playoff spot locked up when it hosts Bogue Chitto in a make-up game at 6 p.m. today for Senior Night, and the No. 3 spot in Division 7-1A.

&uot;We worked every day during the summer,&uot; said senior Jordan Chandler, who smacked home runs in each game Tuesday. &uot;It was pretty hard. We worked in practice, but we worked on our hitting more than anything else. It’s been (hard) for me. I didn’t start off too hot.&uot;

Not many players on the team started hot at the plate, which makes it tough since that is the most important facet of slow-pitch softball. Then things started changing &045; the team would have a breakout game, settle back into that old funk and then have another breakout game.

In the second game Tuesday the Lady Wave had just 10 hits but scored 12 runs in the third inning by merely putting the bat on the ball and moving the runners. Mattie Smith had a grand slam in that third inning that scored Chandler, Meagan Whittington and Jennifer Bernard.

Chandler, hitting in the cleanup spot, had a three-run homer in the second that drove in Kristina Brumfield and Alex Roberts to fuel a seven-run inning.

&uot;(Chandler) can swing the bat,&uot; Binns said. &uot;She’s found a little niche, I guess. When she gets the right pitch and she gets a hold of one, they go. She’s getting some confidence now. To be able to compete in this in a district like this, you’ve got to hit it where people are not.&uot;

The Lady Wave held a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Roberts and Stevens scored on an error, but Franklin answered in the bottom half with two runs. Courtney Reid scored on an Olivia Green triple, and Vanity Green singled to score Olivia Green.

In the first game Cathedral had a 7-0 lead heading into the fourth before scoring seven runs to put it away.

&uot;I think everybody had fun tonight,&uot; Chandler said. &uot;We do better when we act like we’re having fun. I hope everybody does better (than last season). If everybody continues hitting &045; that’s our big problem. Our defense has always been good.&uot;