NATCHEZ &045; There was trouble in the form of bases loaded, but the mound conference was nothing more than a breath of reassurance.

Forgive Preston Hicks if he had trouble putting some batters away after getting ahead in the count real quick. Thursday’s night game was his first start since the West Lincoln game at the first of the month, and he was just removed from his first appearance on the mound since then.

The Cathedral coaches stuck with him, Hicks got the job done and the Green Wave rolled to a 14-4 win in five innings over Puckett to open the playoff tournament at Chester Willis.

&uot;I just have to get in a groove,&uot; Hicks said. &uot;Sometimes I’d get out of it, but I’d settle back in it and try to throw strikes. Coach just came out there and told me to take a deep breath and throw strikes. He settled me down, and I started throwing strikes again. I’m finally able to pitch again, and I’m trying to get back in the groove.&uot;

Hicks got into some tight spots despite allowing only two hits to Puckett batters the entire night. The defense struggled behind him with five errors, and Hicks walked three in his last three innings of work.

But give him credit for doing what coaches had the notion he would do &045; work his way out of it. The Wolves (8-16) finished the game with six runners left on base and had another thrown out at the plate.

And also credit him for helping the entire pitching staff. If the Green Wave (21-4) have to play four games, they’ve got the pitching to do so.

&uot;I was worried he was getting tired there in the last inning, but he fought through it,&uot; CHS head coach Craig Beesley said. &uot;He’s a battler, and he’s a gamer, too. He loves to play. He’ll play anywhere I put him. He just wants to play the game. We’re where we want to be now. We won that first game, and we didn’t have to use any of our top three pitchers. If you can get to Saturday with no losses, you’re in good shape.&uot;

The worst mistake Hicks may have made was in the fifth inning when the Wolves scored three runs to trim the Green Wave lead to 6-4. That’s when Beesley came out to meet with the junior who is still trying to get back full strength from an ankle injury during football.

Hicks walked Thomas Skinner with the bases loaded for the first run, and Stephan Russell then put one over Alex Middleton’s head in right to score Cody Parker and Dewayne Floyd. But the Zack Calhoun took the relay and threw out Skinner at the plate for the third out of the inning.

&uot;Without much time on the mound this year, you could see he had some mental lapses there,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;He didn’t have good concentration. He hung a 1-2 curveball to that seven-hole hitter (Russell), but other than that he did a great job of hitting his spots.&uot;

The defensive play was enough to spark the Cathedral bats to put the game away. The Green Wave jumped on Puckett starter Justin Ross in its next at-bat with eight runs to end the game early.

Seven players got on safely before Ross was pulled in favor of reliever Blake Bowman, who got a strikeout for the first out of the inning. Hicks helped his own cause with a double off Ross that scored Jesse Morrison and Alex Middleton.

&uot;He’s pitched us 100 pitches twice this year,&uot; Puckett head coach Trey Rein said. &uot;It just happens sometimes. It’s just one of those things. We’ll just come out here tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of pitching left, and it’s the playoffs. The season starts over in the playoffs.&uot;

Hicks’ double was part of a hit parade as balls finally started falling. Davis came behind him and singled in Andrew Ellard for the slugger’s first hit of the game following three long flyouts, and Drew Burns’ flyout to center was deep enough to score pinch-runner Braxton Fondren from third.

Chris Rasco’s shot to left scored Davis and Zack Calhoun to end the game.

The Wolves got their first run in the second thanks to two Cathedral errors. Bowman reached base on an error, moved up on another error and later scored on Russell’s groundout to second.

&uot;We’re going to make some changes tomorrow and try to switch some people around,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;We’ll keep the batting order the same, but we’ll switch some people and try to get some consistency. That’s all we’re looking for. We just want them to make the routine plays. All we did yesterday was practice defense. We didn’t get a bat out.&uot;

Those miscues, however, didn’t set in anyone’s memory long. The Green Wave scored five in the second with Charlie Lane poking one just over the fence in right for a solo homer.

Ellard tripled in a run later, and Hicks doubled in Ellard to end the rally.

Said Hicks: &uot;We settled down and started making plays. Every time we get behind, our bats pick us up. If we keep hitting the ball like we are, we’ll be all right.&uot;