VIDALIA, La. &045; Whatever got the Cathedral bats under the weather at this time of year, maybe this weekend can snap them out of it.

The Green Wave still didn’t put the bat on the ball well enough to satisfy the coaches, but if you look closely there were signs of improvement in the Wave’s 5-3 win over Jena in five innings Friday at the Vidalia tournament.

Although the Wave had just four hits, Michael Blain had two and scored two runs while Wyler Murray singled in a run in the first.

Good, but far from satisfied.

&uot;We’re kind of in the doldrums right now,&uot; third baseman Wyler Murray said. &uot;I guess early season has lasted too long. This tournament will get us a chance to play three good teams, and we’ll wake up soon. We’re hitting the ball when we need to. This year when guys are in scoring position we’re doing a better job of getting quality hits and putting the ball in play.&uot;

The Green Wave had some key hits early in the game against a good Jena left-hander and were able to manufacture some runs just as it did on Thursday against Vidalia by aggressive baserunning.

Cathedral scored two in the first and three in the second against Jena pitcher Adam Williams, who walked five and struck out seven before the game was called due to time limit with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.

&uot;Michael Blain is swinging the bat well, and Wyler had a good shot to center field,&uot; CHS head coach Craig Beesley said. &uot;I’m glad to see them swing the bat. Hopefully we can get the middle of our lineup on track before Tuesday when we start district play. We were kind of going through the motions tonight after the big win (Thursday). They gave us some runs early, and we kind of held on at the end.&uot;

The Green Wave was able to take advantage of Williams’ control problems early and manufacture its runs. In the first Blain singled, went to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a passed ball and scored when Garrett Jones struck out and the ball got by the catcher.

Jones went to second on the error and to third on Te Riley’s groundout before scoring on a Murray single for a 2-0 lead.

In the second Jones walked with the bases loaded to score Nick Anderson, Drew Burns scored on a passed ball and Blain scored on a wild pitch for a 5-0 lead.

Much like Tuesday, aggressive baserunning paid off in the long run. Jones was one of two batters who reached base after striking out and the ball getting past the catcher.

&uot;We got some reads on that pitcher, and we were able to take advantage of it,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;I think we had three stolen bases. The passed balls helped us. That pitcher had a lot of movement. He’s a good pitcher and probably one of the better left-handers we’ll see.&uot;

That was the only real trouble Williams got into as he settled down and allowed only one hit after that. The Green Wave put runners on second and third in the third after Charlie Lane struck out but went to second on a passed ball with one out.

Williams then got a strikeout and a flyout to center to end threat. In the fourth the Green Wave put runners at first and second with two outs, and Williams got Murray to fly out to center to end the inning.

&uot;I think (he) was calling it tight, and we were both struggling to get anything in there,&uot; Jena head coach Bernie Cooley said. &uot;Cathedral was able to take advantage of it, and they’ve got a pretty good little ball club. They took advantage of the situation, scored some runs when they needed to and scored a couple runs out of it.&uot;

The Jena bats, meanwhile, struggled early before scoring one on Cathedral starter Corey Walker and two more on reliever Preston Hicks. In the fifth Rafael Dangerfield led off with a walk and scored on a Drew Pendarvis double, and Pendarvis scored when Adam Jones grounded out to first.

The Giants had five hits in the first four innings but couldn’t string together anything until the fifth inning.

&uot;I think we went to the plate not expecting to hit the ball,&uot; Cooley said. &uot;We’ve got to get hits back to back to score.&uot;

The Giants scored one in the third when Dangerfield singled and later scored on a Williams’ groundout to shortstop.