NATCHEZ &045; You can point out the eighth- and ninth-graders in the field for Trinity Episcopal and kind of get an idea of how things were to go this season in Class AA.

But those are excuses, and head coach Matt Mason won’t stand for it.

The Saints dropped their fourth District 4-AA contest in as many tries Monday with a 13-3 loss to Brookhaven Academy in six innings at Chester Willis. The Saints have been competitive and solid both at the plate and in the field at times this season &045; including Friday’s 7-6, 10-inning loss to Centreville &045; but struggled again Monday.

So they’ll go back to work today and keep working hard.

&uot;Routine fly balls are no excuse if you’re 6 or 26,&uot; Mason said. &uot;You’ve got to catch routine fly balls, and we didn’t tonight. It cost us about five runs. We haven’t had a lot of chances to practice. Hopefully the weather will hold off for us and we’ll get to practice.

&uot;I may need some Doan’s backache pills from hitting so many fly balls, but we’ll work on them. Our playoff chances are pretty much shot, but our goal is to spoil it for somebody else.&uot;

The Saints ended the game with six errors, but that figure combined with the Cougars’ 11 hits and Trinity’s two hits and 11 strikeouts off Brookhaven pitching left little result for the outcome. The Saints put up two runs in the first inning after Brookhaven scored four, but Cole Hodges and Corey Dickerson kept the Saints from doing any damage at the plate.

Hodges went five while striking out eight, and Dickerson fanned the side in the sixth to end it.

&uot;It’s always good when you have a lead to work with,&uot; Hodges said. &uot;You know you’re going to have run support. I was keeping them off balance with the breaking pitches. I had better command of my curveball than I normally do. I probably threw 35 curveballs in 85 pitches and kept them off balance.&uot;

Give the Cougars credit for making solid contact and not striking out much against Trinity pitchers Matthew Freeman and Kyle Dunaway. They went down swinging only three times, had two-run singles in the fourth and sixth innings and put up four in the sixth to end it early.

Jeremy Winborne singled off Dunaway to score Cole Hodges and Dickerson for the 13-3 lead. The Saints, though, didn’t have errors in that inning after every inning the Cougars scored in prior to then was buoyed by a Trinity error.

&uot;Matthew is just a freshman, and he doesn’t throw extremely hard,&uot; Mason said. &uot;I felt like if we made the plays behind him, they score six runs instead of 13 and we have a chance. We gave them some outs, and you can’t do that against good ball teams. Some situations are tough for young players, but we’ve got to start stepping up and making plays in those situations.&uot;

The Cougars picked up four in the first with the Saints committing an error and two more in the second with two Trinity errors. Hodges led off the game by reaching on an error and scored on a Winborne single.

Winborne reached in the second when a fly ball fell in, and he scored on a passed ball. Keith Franklin later struck out but reached when the ball got away from the catcher and the throw to first went high.

Paul Davis then singled Franklin in for a 6-2 lead.

Hodges, meanwhile, kept a steady dose of breaking pitches at Trinity while the lead continued to build. The Saints picked up two in the first inning when Freeman singled in Clint Easom and Dunaway, but they couldn’t get another hit after the first.

The Saints got a run in the third when Stevan Ridley walked, stole second and later scored on a wild pitch.

&uot;Our pitching staff works well together,&uot; Brookhaven head coach Stephen Cooksey said. &uot;They’re very unselfish. We threw a lot of breaking balls at them, and I really thought Cole’s control was good tonight. We didn’t have a lot of walks and had a lot of strikes.

&uot;I thought our catcher (Chris Falvey) really did a good job with us throwing a lot of breaking pitches in the dirt and things like that. Corey came in and did a good job of closing it down.&uot;

The Saints had a baserunner in the fourth when Kyle Ketchings led off with a walk, but Hodges retired the next three in order. Freeman walked on four pitches in the sixth, but that’s when Cooksey brought in Dickerson to finish game out.

Freeman went to second on a wild pitch and was left stranded.

&uot;Their pitcher did an excellent job, but I was very disappointed in the way we battled at the plate,&uot; Mason said. &uot;We’ve battled at the plate this year, but I was disappointed in our at-bats tonight. (Hodges) was able to get his breaking ball over for strikes and early in the count, and it made his fastball that much better. We’ve been doing well on two-strike hitting, but we didn’t do a good job of that at all.&uot;