NATCHEZ — The Cathedral School softball team had its cage rattled Saturday afternoon.

After winning Game 1 of their MHSAA South State semi-final series 8-0 Thursday night, the Green Wave faced a determined opponent from Sebastopol in Game 2.

Despite having Mollie Devening on the mound, the same pitcher that tossed a no-hitter against Sebastopol in Game 1, Cathedral struggled in Game 2 and fell 8-2 to force a deciding third game.

But it was Cathedral’s ability to recover from disappointment that ended up being the story in the third game.

“These girls know what to do,” Cathedral coach Gary Blackwell said. “I don’t have to tell them anything. They knew how important it is and knew they had to regroup.”

The Green Wave got a great outing from pitcher Ginny Daggett in Game 3 and answered every Sebastopol score with two of their own to win 4-2 and advance to the South State Final.

“Ginny did a great job,” Blackwell said. “In the first game our defense did so good (in Sebastopol) I didn’t want to change it, but we knew Ginny would be ready and she did great.”

Cathedral’s nerves were tested again early in the third game when Sebastopol strung together three-straight hits in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.

But Cathedral answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first to take its first lead of the day.

Daggett settled in after the first inning a pitched three scoreless innings before giving up a solo home run to Brentley Comans in the fourth inning that tied the game at 2-2.

The Green Wave answered right back in the bottom of the fourth with two more runs to take a 4-2 lead.

Daggett held Sebastopol from there and finished the game with two strikeouts while giving up four hits and two runs.

Daggett also helped herself out at the plate, going 2-for-3 in Game 3. Mollie Devening was 2-for-2 in the final game.

Cathedral surrendered five errors in Game 2, but Blackwell said the defense settled down in the final game.

“Our defense was a lot better,” he said. “We made a few errors in the first game.”

Sebastopol jumped to a 5-0 lead after one inning in Game 2, and Blackwell said that deficit was hard to overcome.

“I didn’t think we came to play (in the first game),” Blackwell said. “After the big game up there, we didn’t come to play. We were too relaxed.”

Blackwell said despite the bad first game, Cathedral did not worry about falling behind 1-0 in the final game.

“We knew it was just one run, and we knew we could come back,” he said.

The win puts Cathedral in the South State Championship for the first time in school history, Blackwell said.

The Green Wave (19-5-1) will face the winner of Nanih Waiya and Stringer, with Game 1 of the South State Championship Series being played Thursday.