NATCHEZ &8212; If you&8217;re as comfortable and confident at the plate as Matthew Freeman has been, a pitching change won&8217;t shake you.

Bowling Green brought in a new pitcher with the score tied in the bottom half of the sixth to face Freeman, one of the hottest hitters for Trinity. He hadn&8217;t put it out of the infield the previous three at-bats, but this time he delivered.

His single to the outfield on the first pitch from reliever Daniel Varnado scored Clint Easom from second for a 3-2 lead. Then Kolby Godfrey finished it off in the seventh to take the win over the Buccaneers Friday at Chester Willis Field.

&8220;These guys are learning to battle for seven innings,&8221; said Trinity head coach Matt Mason, whose club is now 4-6 in 4-AA and 7-7 overall. &8220;The last couple of wins have been close wins, and they&8217;re battling now. They believe now if they battle for seven innings, they&8217;ll keep themselves in the the game.

&8220;We&8217;re at .500 now, and we&8217;re excited about that. We&8217;ve been right at .500 this year and couldn&8217;t get there. If somebody came and watched us early in the year and watched us now, they&8217;d think they were watching two different teams.&8221;

The Saints added another district win to improve on last year&8217;s total and did it the way they&8217;ve won games of late &8212; with pitching and defense. Just like Tuesday&8217;s win at Bowling Green where the Saints scored two in the seven to claim the 5-4 win, they battled at the end to win it.

And Freeman did it again. On Tuesday, his single sparked the two-run rally. This time Blaine Misita reached on a fielder&8217;s choice, went to second on John Mark Henderson&8217;s sacrifice bunt and scored on an error to tie the game.

Freeman had perhaps the Saints&8217; hardest hit of the game to score Easom to score the game-winning run.

&8220;I just watched him during warm-ups,&8221; Freeman said. &8220;He was throwing a good bit of fastballs. Usually, the first pitch is a strike. We didn&8217;t capitalize scoring runners on base (earlier in the game). Their pitcher had a pretty good curveball and was mixing it up.&8221;

The rally, however, may not have started had Misita not scored from second on an error on a ground ball of the bat of Easom. And the same thing happened in the sixth when the Saints got their first run of the game after trailing 2-0.

Parker Brumfield reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error on the play.

He went to third on a passed ball and scored on another passed ball as the Saints got the run without a hit.

&8220;Two outs (in the sixth) and we had a throwing error that scores eventually the go-ahead run,&8221; Bowling Green head coach Matt Magee said. &8220;But that error didn&8217;t win or lose the ball game. We had a couple opportunities to score runs. We gave them four and five outs an inning, and they finally capitalized. We had our chances early in the game to score a runners.&8221;

That&8217;s what happened to the Buccaneers in the seventh off Trinity starter Kolby Godfrey. He walked No. 1 hitter Brian Barber and Lee Hunt with one out in the seventh to give the Bucs (4-8, 7-13) some life, but the big right-hander punched out the next two batters on strikeouts to end the game.

Godfrey finished the game with 14 strikeouts, six walks and four hits allowed and entered the seventh inning having thrown 124 pitches.

&8220;It doesn&8217;t matter to me how many I have,&8221; Godfrey said. &8220;I&8217;ve just got to get it done. Adrenaline rush (in the seventh). You&8217;ve got to man up and do it.&8221;

Godfrey reached the 100-pitch mark in the fifth inning with one out after walking two batters. But there, too, he regrouped and punched out the next two batters to end the inning.

He also struck out the first two batters in the sixth.

&8220;Godfrey did a great job on the mound,&8221; Magee said. &8220;He kept us off balance with two pitches. I think when they took the lead, he got a second wind.&8221;

The only trouble Godfrey got into was in the third when Bowling Green used triples from Barber and Hunt and a sacrifice fly from Cody Hughes to take a 2-0 lead.

The Saints, too, had situations where they left runners on base early in the game. They had a runner in scoring position in each of the first four innings, including runners at second and third in the third before BG starter Chad Champagne got a strikeout to end the inning.

&8220;Our last two pitching performances have been great,&8221; Mason said. &8220;The defense is making the plays behind them. We&8217;ve still got to pick up some runners in scoring position We&8217;ve got to learn to pick those runners up early.&8221;