NATCHEZ &045; For Greenville St. Joseph’s head coach Kenny Wolf, just beating Cathedral once was a welcome change after so many frustrating losses.

After three years of falling to the Green Wave, including an 8-2 loss Saturday in the opening game of the best-of-three series, the Fighting Irish finally got a win, beating the Green Wave 13-4 Monday. Cathedral (25-6) will go to Greenville to play the rubber game at 5 p.m. Thursday.

&uot;The monkey’s off our back,&uot; Wolf said. &uot;For many years these guys have put it to us. I’m glad we finally got in here and beat them. If we had made a couple plays and gotten a hit or two, we should have been in that first game, too.&uot;

Cathedral’s thin pitching staff caught up to it again as the Green Wave went through three pitchers, none of whom could stop the onslaught.

&uot;We knew going in that after Patrick McDonough (who started the first game against St. Joseph’s), we’re hurting for pitching,&uot; Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. &uot;None of our pitchers really got much going tonight.&uot;

Beesley and Wolf both said they have not decided who will start on the mound for their teams Thursday.

Beesley said he’s hopeful his team can rebound and win.

&uot;So far we went up there and won and they came down here and won, so both visiting teams have won. We hope that streak will continue,&uot; Beesley said.

In Monday’s game, the Irish got things started early. Green Wave starter Drew Burns, in just his second outing of the year, gave up consecutive home runs to Layne Boykin and Jonathan Martin in the second inning, giving the Irish a 2-0 lead.

But the Green Wave came back strong in the second to take their first lead of the game. Drew Burns led off with a single and courtesy runner Braxton Fondren moved to third when Zack Calhoun reached on an error. Jesse Morrison loaded the bases after Chris Rasco struck out.

Patrick McDonough struck out with the bases loaded before Andrew Ellard knocked Fondren in with an infield single.

Unfortunately for Cathedral, those would be the team’s only runs in the game.

&uot;That one inning we through it around a little and made a couple errors and they scored some runs, but that was it,&uot; Wolf said. &uot;We kept the pressure on Cathedral. We know they can cruise when they put the pressure on you.&uot;

St. Joseph’s put that pressure back on the Green Wave with a five-run third inning. Max Freeman, Travis Webster, Jamie Montgomery and Chris Reifers started the inning with consecutive singles. Montgomery’s hit scored Freeman and Layne Boykin’s walk scored Webster, forcing Beesley to put Jeremy Davis in to relieve Burns. Martin hit a single to score Montgomery and John Swift knocked in Reifers and Layne Boykin to give St. Joseph’s a 9-4 lead.

The Irish scored two more in the fourth when Montgomery doubled and Reifers singled. Montgomery’s scored on an error and Layne Boykin knocked in Reifers. In the fifth, Cayne Boykin singled, took second on a balk and scored on Swift’s single.