NATCHEZ &045; It’s already been deemed a summer on the mound for Adams Christian, and Dustin Case gave it his first try Monday.

This summer league is all about being low key, and AC head coach Ron Rushing is even letting the pitchers call their own pitches. For Case, it was plenty of fastballs and changeups with the occasional curveball as he stuck out seven in three innings in a 9-3 win over Amite Monday.

The game was the second game of a doubleheader and was called after 3 1/2 innings.

&uot;I always pitched when I was little, but I haven’t pitched in high school because I didn’t have to,&uot; said Case, who will be a senior next spring when the Rebels enter the season minus their top two pitchers from the previous season.

&uot;It’s been a while. I need a lot of work at it, I know that. I haven’t forgotten much. I pitched some in ninth grade, and that was the last time I pitched.&uot;

Case threw strikes in his debut performance while Rushing also got others to get some work in Monday in the team’s first game and only second workout since losing to Jackson Prep in the Class AAA championship two weeks ago.

Timmy Foster, the team’s lone holdover on the mound, threw three innings the first game before giving way to Matt Barnes. Austin Weeks threw an inning of relief in the second game after Case exited.

&uot;He threw well, but he hasn’t thrown much,&uot; Rushing said. &uot;That’s something he has to work on. He threw all of his offspeed pitches for strikes. We threw strikes and played good defense. He was throwing the fastball, changeup, curveball &045; all three for strikes.&uot;

Case didn’t allow a hit against a rebuilding Amite club and allowed just one baserunner when he hit Justin Baggett with a pitch to open the game. He got the last two outs of the first on strikeouts, struck out the side all looking in the second and fanned two in the third.

&uot;It was probably my first time to throw to a mitt since the first of the school year,&uot; Case said. &uot;I threw two or three different changeups, and that was probably my best pitch. We’ve got to get somebody to throw. We’ve got Timmy coming back, but we’ve got to get somebody in there who can pitch.&uot;

Amite got a couple runs in the fourth off Weeks with big Dustin Iverson clocking a double before Justin Baggett and William Huggins each drove in a run.

But Foster was solid in the first game with Barnes consistent in two innings of relief to close it out.

&uot;I thought Barnes threw well,&uot; Rushing said. &uot;He’ll be a ninth-grader, and he came in and threw the ball real well. And Timmy threw the ball real well.&uot;

Adams Christian hit the ball well in putting up nine runs in three innings. In the first inning Foster had a double that scored Case and Ray Simpson off Iverson for the first two runs, and Foster scored on a passed ball before Brian Smith’s groundout scored Jamie Morris for a 4-0 lead.

In the second Cole Bradford singled in Clay Floyd for the first run before scoring on a Simpson single for a 6-0 lead.