Joe Frazier knew every sting of Muhammad Ali. Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns were all too familiar with one another’s footwork. At some point during their trilogy, Roberto Duran had to uncover Sugar Ray Leonard’s version of the &uot;rope a dope.&uot;

In every great series of one-on-one battles, the two parties essentially know what the other will do before it happens.

Steps, plays, moves &045; all of it &045; have been mapped out. The differences tend to come internally.

Vidalia head coach Johnny Lee Hoffpauir has seen many great Cathedral teams sit in opposite dugouts from his Vikings teams for more than two decades. So does he think this is the best Wave club ever?

&uot;This is one of the best hitting clubs I’ve seen Cathedral have. There are no easy outs in the order,&uot; Hoffpauir said after Cathedral laid the wood to the Vikes 18-8 last Thursday. &uot;If they’re pitching stays strong, they’ve got the ingredients to have one of those special years.&uot;

Cathedral (19-3), which will host a four-team playoff at Chester Willis Field beginning Friday, uncharacteristically had its bats fall silent during the first game at the Brookhaven Tournament Saturday before unleashing on Franklin County.

&uot;It’s good playing competition like Vidalia, Brookhaven and Franklin County because we don’t go long in our games with district,&uot; Green Wave head coach Craig Beesley said. &uot;It’s good to be able to play and be focused on every pitch.&uot;

KELLY GREEN WITH ENVY &045; If you don’t have memories you’d soon forget, then stay inside the glass house all you want.

The rest of us, including Amite School Center head coach Kelly Kinsey, will try to glaze over the unwanted nostalgia. With a 7-A district championship in hand, Kinsey much rather prefers to live in the now.

No disrespect aimed at his former school Presbyterian Christian, where he was an assistant, but the s took their lumps last year.

Now, Kinsey is part of program that has reeled of 30 consecutive district wins, both during the regular season and tournament, and is 38-4 in its last four years.

&uot;It’s my first year here, and coming in knowing they were sitting on a streak of 20 games, that’s a lot of pressure on a first-year coach,&uot; Kinsey said. &uot;I knew we could probably pull it off, and the players have done the job in the district.&uot;

NEW AND IMPROVED &045; Adams Christian sophomore right-hander may have his kinks worked out. He was solid in a 15-5 win over Jackson Prep, a welcome sign of improvement following some shaky starts in conference earlier in the year.

AC head coach Gill Morris said much of it had to do with offspeed pitches, and things got corrected before Friday’s outing against the Patriots. Foster struck out five in five innings and survived a five-run third to close the door.

&uot;He threw a great changeup,&uot; Morris said. &uot;We had them looking for the changeup, and that makes the fastball look that much faster. His arm hasn’t been matching up with his body on the curveball. He just started getting his elbow up in that ‘L’ shape. We made some adjustments, and in the third, fourth and fifth innings he had a real good deuce.&uot;

Maybe he let everyone know at the start of the game that things might change. Although he got in trouble early, Foster started the game with getting Prep standout JoJo Tann to strike out looking on three pitches.

THAT WILLIAMS KID &045; Williams and Tann have become good friends through summer league, but nobody on the Adams Christian roster has caused the Patriots more headaches than Williams.

You’ll remember Williams slugged four homers in a Prep win in Natchez last season, and on Friday Williams crushed two over the fence, including a grand slam in the second inning off sidearmer Drew Maddox.

&uot; (Maddox’s) a good pitcher, and he beat Hillcrest 8-1,&uot; Williams said. &uot;They’ve got one of the best pitching staff we’ve seen. He had a good curveball and a good fastball. Everybody stayed back, and everybody was focused. The second (homer) he got behind, and I heard the coach say, ‘Don’t throw him a fastball.’ He left it up over the plate a little bit.&uot;

The slam got everyone in the AC dugout going, although Prep tied it up 5-5 in its next at-bat. Williams was in the leadoff spot after spending most of the season in the No. 2 hole behind Dustin Case.

&uot;There’s no doubt he’s our team leader,&uot; Morris said. &uot;He’s our gung-ho guy, and I can probably think of a better word that that, but he’s very clutch. He keeps us up in the dugout.&uot;

Adam Daigle

contributed to this report.