NATCHEZ — It’s hard enough to beat a Cathedral High School (19-5) baseball team that’s combined for 21 hits through 11 innings against Lumberton High School, but the Panthers hurt their cause after allowing five unearned runs in the first two innings of a 10-0 defeat Friday night at Chester Willis Field.

The Green Wave’s 8-hit performance through five innings in a 10-run rule victory came after a 13-hit showing in Cathedral’s 10-0 victory against Lumberton the previous night.

Head coach Craig Beesley was pleased with the way his team played offensively in the series sweep.

“We struggled offensively during the year, but we’ve really turned it on since the last week of the regular season,” Beesley said. “They look more comfortable around the plate. Hitting is contagious, and hopefully, we can keep it going.”

Thomas Garrity led off the game with an infield single, and after Andrew Beesley reached base on an infield error, the Green Wave had two runners on with no outs. One batter later, Lumberton’s Kale Lancaster threw a wild pitch that scored Garrity and Beesley. Zac Flattmann, Craig Bradley and Pate Shirley followed with singles, and Flattmann scored on another wild pitch thrown by Lancaster to give Cathedral a 3-0 lead after one.

The second inning saw much of the same after Sam Parker made quick work of Lumberton’s batters. After Garrity reached on one of Lumberton’s four errors and Beesley walked, the Green Wave scored two more runs on a botched throwback to first base.

“We put pressure on them early with our base running,” Beesley said. “Then, they started making mistakes, and we took advantage of those breaks.”

Parker limited Lumberton’s base runners by allowing only one hit and walking two. When Lumberton had a runner on in the first and second innings with no outs, Ty Brown had his pitcher’s back, throwing out both runners at second on steal attempts.

Cathedral all but put the nail in the coffin in the bottom of the fourth inning when Shirley drilled a 2-RBI double and Brock Farmer drilled an RBI sacrifice fly to left field, extending the Green Wave’s lead to 9-0. Beesley would end the game the next inning with a walkoff RBI single, allowing the 10-run rule to conclude the contest.

With the series win, Cathedral advances to the next round of the playoffs and awaits the winner of French Camp Academy and Bogue Chitto.