NATCHEZ &8212; Monday night was Senior Recognition Night at the Natchez-Adams Girls Softball Complex as Cathedral honored seniors Mattie Smith, Claire Kenda and Aisha Sanders.

And if not for the first inning, it would have been a more competitive game between the Lady Green Wave, completing their second season of fast-pitch softball, and the West Lincoln Lady Bears.

Instead, West Lincoln brought 16 players to the plate and scored 10 runs on five hits and six errors in the top of the first as the Lady Bears took a 15-2 win to bring up a showdown with Bogue Chitto for the Division 7-1A championship tonight.

&8220;Just about every game this year, the first inning has killed us,&8221; Lady Green Wave head coach Gary Blackwell said. &8220;The girls have butterflies. They&8217;re nervous. But I&8217;m proud of the girls. We learned a lot from this.&8221;

But perhaps the moment of the game occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning. After grounding out to West Lincoln shortstop Kacey Smith to end the bottom of the first, Mattie Smith was down to her final at-bat of her career at Cathedral with one last chance to do something special.

And Mattie Smith did just that as she tripled the opposite way to right field for an triple that scored Elizabeth Blackwell, who led off with a triple of her own. Smith later scored on an error by third baseman Holli Smith.

&8220;I finally choked up,&8221; Mattie Smith said. &8220;I&8217;ve never choked up since I&8217;ve played in Dixie Youth. I was a good way to end it. In slow-pitch softball, you can hit it either way. I just hit it where the pitch went. That was nice.&8221;

The triples by Blackwell and Smith were the only two hits given up by West Lincoln pitcher Heather Huff. Huff struck out eight batters, including the side in order in the bottom of the fifth to end the game, and walked just one.

&8220;The last couple of weeks she&8217;s done a lot better job of locating her pitches and making sure the hitters earn their hits,&8221; Lady Bears head coach Andrew Redd said. &8220;She usually doesn&8217;t strike out a lot of people. She usually gets four or five and the defense does a good job of backing her up.&8221;

The first eight batters for West Lincoln (6-1, 12-5) reached base and five of them scored before the first out was recorded in the top of the first when Karli Harrington, pinch running for Huff, was thrown out at home on a throw from Mae Durkin to Smith.

The bottom of the first wasn&8217;t much better for Cathedral (0-8, 3-14). With one out, Blackwell hit a fly ball that looked like it was going to drop in for a base hit in left field, but Ashley McCaffery made an outstanding diving catch for the second out.

After the first inning, Cathedral pitcher Brandi McGraw settled down and allowed only one run over the next two innings.

&8220;They sat back and started relaxing a little too much,&8221; Redd said. &8220;They were a little impatient.&8221;

In the top of the second, Alexis Cook hit a fly ball that appeared to be going over centerfielder Blackwell&8217;s head for an extra-base hit, but Blackwell stayed with it and made a great catch for the second out. Holli Smith then scored thanks to two errors on one play to make it an 11-0 game.

Smith then made a sensational defensive play of her own in the top of the third when Betsy Daggett hit a hard line-drive down the third-base line. But Smith snagged it and made a strong throw to first for the out.

&8220;We made a change two or three weeks ago moving Hall back to third to solidify the position,&8221; Redd said.

Three errors allowed West Lincoln to score four runs over the final two innings.