GREENVILLE &045; You knew it was a bad day when the strengths and weaknesses that made Cathedral what it was

in the 2005 Cathedral season just about did a complete reversal.

Good pitching, shaky hitting.

Throw some defensive mistakes and baserunning boo-boos, and the Green Wave ended the season short of its goal. But credit Greenville St. Joseph, who looked a good bit like that Cathedral team from a season ago at the plate and came away with an 8-1 win to advance to the South State championship series.

It ended the Green Wave’s season at 25-7.

&uot;We didn’t look like we were in the game today,&uot; Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. &uot;We had four baserunning mistakes that cost us, and they took advantage of everything we made mistakes on.

&uot;With the pitching we had and replacing some of the players we had to replace, I think we did a good job. I hate we won the first game (of the series) and couldn’t put them away. That made me feel we would get to South State. But they’ve got a good team. I’ve got to hand it to them. It seemed like they were ready and we weren’t. It was just one of those days.&uot;

Much like that Cathedral team from 2004, this Irish team didn’t fool around too much when it came to putting the bat on the ball. The Irish showed that in Game 2 with its 13-4 win in Natchez but still was a little sluggish coming out of the box Thursday against Cathedral left-hander Patrick McDonough.

Yet when two Cathedral errors put runners on the corners in the fifth, things took a turn for the better for the Irish with the score tied at 1-1.

&uot;We hit about 10 fly balls for outs,&uot; said shortstop Max Freeman, a Mississippi Delta signee who homered in the first. &uot;We need to hit the ball on the ground, and we need to hit line drives. We’ve got to get the base hits and move the runners along. But we just got in a rally. A base hit started it, and everybody else followed up.&uot;

The first base hit came from Layne Boykin, who drove in Jamie Montgomery after Montgomery reached on a two-base error. Jonathan Martin then singled in Chris Reifers for a 3-1 lead, and Layne Boykin scored on a double-steal with two outs just before Preston Hicks put the tag on Cayne Boykin for the third out of the inning.

All that came on the heels of the Green Wave finally getting on the scoreboard in the top half on no hits when Braxton Fondren scored on a Jeremy Davis fielder’s choice.

&uot;We don’t hit well against pitchers not high in velocity, but that pitcher did a good job,&uot; Irish head coach Kenny Wolf said. &uot;That’s two games for them he pitched. We just started catching up with it at the end. The big thing with Natchez was I thought our pitching was superior to theirs. But our defense, it was a little shaky.&uot;

The three runs gave the Irish all the momentum it needed, but the Green Wave had its chances after that. In the sixth Cathedral got an infield single from Drew Burns before Chris Rasco was hit by a pitch, causing starter Cayne Boykin to exit for Sam Maddox.

Jesse Morrison reached on an error to load the bases with one out. But Morrison was thrown out after tried to move up a bag for the second out, and McDonough grounded out to short to end the inning.

In the seventh Andrew Ellard singled to lead off but was caught off first after Freeman made a diving grab on a Hicks liner for a double play. Jeremy Davis walked, but Maddox got a strikeout to end the game.

&uot;That kind of took the wind out of us,&uot; Beesley said of that sixth inning. &uot;We had the bases loaded, one out and was looking good at the time. (Morrison) thought we had moved the runners up to first and third on a ground ball up the middle. It’s just one of those mistakes. We had four of them today, and they all came at crucial times.&uot;

Not only did that deflate the Green Wave, but the Irish followed that with four runs on four hits in the bottom half to blow it open. Freeman and Webster scored the first two on errors, Layne Boykin singled in Montgomery and Chris Reifers scored when Cayne Boykin walked with the bases loaded.

&uot;Patrick struggled a little bit today, but I was going to leave him out there as long as I could,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;He battled. We made some errors behind him, and the bottom fell out. That fifth inning really hurt us. He could have been out of the inning on four pitches.&uot;

The Green Wave never really looked comfortable at the plate against Cayne Boykin, who threw some in Game 1 of the series and allowed two of the Wave’s three hits. The Green Wave left two runners on in the second and third but couldn’t get the key hits with two outs and left nine on for the game.

&uot;Cayne is my No. 1 pitcher, but Cayne got hurt,&uot; Wolf said. &uot;He doesn’t have his stuff quite yet, but he’s starting to get strong again. Not pitching for about three weeks will hurt you. He’s got a great breaking ball. He’s got great movement on it. I think that’s what got them. You can’t throw fastballs to a team like Cathedral.&uot;