MCCOMB &045; Careless defensive play once again plagued Natchez High Saturday.

An Achilles heel all season for the Bulldogs continued to haunt them in a 10-3 non-division loss against McComb.

The Tigers scored eight of their total runs during the first three innings against Natchez starter Matthew Henderson. McComb managed seven hits, but were helped out considerably by six Bulldog errors.

The Tigers &uot;were hitting OK, but we made errors,&uot; Natchez head coach Charlie Williams said. &uot;That first inning they shouldn’t have gotten but two runs. We made too many errors.&uot;

Brandon Erwin homered and Matthew Hay, who was 2 for 4, doubled to help lead the McComb attack.

Charles Cothern went 2 for 3 from the plate, collecting nearly half of the Bulldogs’ five hits.

&uot;It was a little bit better than what we have been doing, but not good enough,&uot; Williams said of his team’s performance at the dish.

&uot;We put the ball in play, but (McComb) made the plays. I think we should be hitting the ball better. We’re just going to wait and see and play one at a time.&uot;

Natchez scored all of its runs in the second. Robin Blake led off with a walk, and then stole second. Cothern move Blake to third with a single, and Blake scored when Jonathan Knight reached on an error. Aaron Ratliff followed Knight with a two-RBI single to make it 5-3 McComb.

Mangham 13, Monterey 1

MANGHAM, La. &045; Wolves head coach Hank Zizzi was completely disenchanted with the performance of his Wolves after it had one of Class 1A’s top teams reeling early.

An eight-run fourth and a three-run blast in the sixth did Monterey in after six innings.

&uot;After the third inning we played with no emotion, no fire,&uot; Zizzi said. &uot;We’re playing the No. 5 1A school in Louisiana, and had it 1-1, and all sudden no get-up and go.&uot;

Monterey starter Gary Evans walked a batter to begin the lengthy Dragons’ fourth.

Mangham connected on back-back hits and a sacrifice bunt kept things going with no outs.

A Wolves’ error that plated two runs followed, and then Mangham collected two more hits before another Monterey error.

&uot;We played flat. We weren’t making a big effort to go get the ball,&uot; Zizzi said. &uot;They’ve got a good ball club, no doubt about that.

&uot;We hit the ball pretty well, they just had some excellent defensive plays. Had a couple shots to short and down line, but they made plays. They put forth better effort than we did.&uot;