NATCHEZ — Cathedral High School defeated St. Aloysius 3-0 Monday night to go a perfect 8-0 in district, but St. Aloysius coach Steve Hancock believes one call had a dramatic impact on the outcome.

In the fifth inning, down 2-0 to the Green Wave, St. Aloysius’ Jacob Breeden came to bat with a man on first and one out. Breeden lined a shot between first and second base as Connor Smith looked to advance to second base. Smith made it to third base when the umpire called him out, ruling that the line drive hit Smith as he was making his way to second.

“You’re not going to have a line drive hit a runner and there be no affect on the runner and no affect on the ball,” Hancock said. “It’s not going to stay on a straight line, and if that guy gets pegged by a line drive, he’s going to look like he just got snipered. It was one of the worst calls I’ve seen in a long time.”

As the game stalled with the umpires trying to figure out what happened, Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley walked out of the dugout, pointing out the umpire initially called him out.

“I knew the runner had stopped running between first and second, so I knew something happened,” Beesley said. “I didn’t know how hard it hit him because the ball continued through, but I knew the umpire called it right off the bat. That’s why I came out.”

Cathedral pitcher Sam Parker struck out ensuing batter Lane Hynum to end the inning and his night. Parker pitched five innings, allowing no runs on three hits.

In the bottom of the fifth, Cathedral’s Pate Shirley gave his team a bigger lead, as he crushed a Breeden fastball out of the park.

“He threw me a fastball right down the middle, and it looked like a beach ball coming right down the plate,” Shirley said. “I took a good hack at it.”

Shirley was 2-for-2 on the day with a double and a home run. Zach Flattmann had a double, as well, scoring Craig Bradley in the first inning. Brock Farmer hit an RBI fielder’s choice in the third inning.

Gabe Smith relieved Parker in the sixth inning and struck out two and allowed no runs and no hits to earn the save.

Beesley was impressed with his team’s defense, specifically center fielder J.J. Jenkins’ distance covered in the outfield.

“J.J. gets the best jump on the ball coming off the bat that we’ve had in a long time,” Beesley said. “We made some plays on defense.”

With the win, and forfeit by McAdams High School, Cathedral will play Northwest Rankin Friday to prep for the second round of the playoffs next week.

As for the health of Quinton Logan, Cathedral’s starting pitcher that injured his elbow in his last outing against St. Aloysius last week, Beesley said he should be able to pitch.

“We got a good report on him today, hopefully he’ll throw maybe an inning or two Friday,” Beesley said. “We think it’s just tendinitis in the elbow.”

Cathedral improves to 14-2, while St. Aloysius falls to 10-10 and awaits playoffs Thursday.