NATCHEZ — The Cathedral Lady Wave started district play with one of their toughest opponents and biggest rivals in St. Aloysius Thursday night.

Despite a slow start at the plate, the Lady Wave were able to score seven runs and pitcher Elizabeth Smith threw seven solid innings propelling Cathedral to a 7-1 win.

“It is really big any time you win against St. Al,” Cathedral head coach Gary Blackwell said. “This was our first district game, also, so it was a very important win for us.”

After three scoreless innings to open the game, the Lady Wave bats came to life, plating four runs in the bottom of the third inning.

“I knew our team could keep it together and come back when we needed,” Blackwell said. “They just needed to get some of the nerves out of the way. Once they kind of started relaxing, we started going to work.”

Grayson Bryant led off the bottom of the third with a walk, and advanced to third on two wild pitches from St. Al pitcher Stephanie Schoonover.

Emily Rasco reached on an error, which allowed Bryant to score, and Baylee Granning walked to put two on base for three-hole hitter Mackenzie Watts.

Watts knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly to center and Elizabeth Smith followed her up with a two-run single, to push the Cathedral lead to 4-0.

The four runs were more than enough for the Lady Wave, who were cruising in the field behind Smith.

Smith allowed just three hits in the game, and the one run St. Al scored was unearned.

“She did great,” Blackwell said of Smith. “She should’ve had a shutout, but she did a great job.”

Cathedral padded the lead in the fifth on an RBI-double from Watts, and eventually put the game out of reach in the sixth on a Marty Lewis home run and an RBI-single from McKenzie Milligan.

“Our leadoffs got on base today, better than they have in the past couple of games,” Blackwell said. “It helps when you have the leadoffs on and then have the big sticks come up behind them. It is going to be a plus for us all year.”

Milligan finished the game with four hits and Watts and Smith both drove in two runs.

Moving forward, with a matchup against Bogue Chitto looming, Smith said this win will be a big momentum boost for the team.

“This is huge,” she said. “This is our biggest rival and biggest district game besides Bogue Chitto.”