NATCHEZ &8212; The friendships that will be renewed this weekend may work in Natchez High&8217;s favor when they head down to Gulfport to open the Class 5A playoffs.

Maybe Michael Lindsey may take it easy against his old team.

Don&8217;t expect that to happen when action begins today, but expect Lindsey&8217;s Admirals to be the favorite when the three-team tournament begins. It&8217;s a chance for Lindsey to play against his former team, assistant coach and students if the Bulldogs can get by Jim Hill in the opening round game.

That will begin at 4 p.m. The winner will face Lindsey&8217;s Gulfport team at 7 p.m.

&8220;It&8217;ll be good to see (NHS head coach) Charlie (Williams),&8221; said Lindsey, whose 2001 Natchez High team was the last in school history to make the playoffs. &8220;I think he&8217;s a good coach, and (assistant) Dan Smith played for me. Most of those players were in the seventh grade when I left. I&8217;m familiar with some of them, and it&8217;ll be fun to see them again.&8221;

Lindsey left following that 2001 season to take the job at Gulfport, and he&8217;s since earned a position as assistant principal at the school. Williams, meanwhile, spent one season under Lindsey and another under Greg Patterson in 2002 before taking over the program in 2003.

Williams, too, will get a chance to catch up with Lindsey this weekend. And a win would put them up against his old boss in the nightcap.

&8220;That&8217;s where I learned most of my baseball,&8221; Williams said. &8220;It&8217;s going to be exciting to see him again and play against him. He got along with the kids real well, and I kind of picked up on some of his work habits. He has a good team this year. He should make it to South State.&8221;

It would be better had Lindsey&8217;s club played in a tournament up here, but this is the closest thing. His Admirals have never faced Natchez High since he left, and he&8217;s tried to keep up with everything here through the Internet and family members who still live here.

&8220;Baseball has always been big in Natchez,&8221; he said.

And he&8217;ll see perhaps the best Natchez High team since he&8217;s left. The Bulldogs had a drought in division since then by not winning a game until handing Wingfield a loss to start division this season.

The Bulldogs (15-11) dropped a 13-5 decision Monday to Lawrence County &8212; which returned most of its team from last year that put an 18-2 hurting on the Bulldogs &8212; as a tuneup for the playoffs.

The difference? They had only two strikeouts through six &8212; both the same person &8212; and had hard-hit balls that didn&8217;t fall.

&8220;We&8217;ve been cutting (strikeouts) down each game,&8221;

Williams said. &8220;We hit some hard (Monday). We&8217;re probably going to come up short, but I want them to learn. We&8217;re going down to play some ball. If we hit the ball like we did then, we&8217;ll be able to stay in it.&8221;

And if you speak of hitting, you can&8217;t go without talking of the lineup Gulfport (16-9) has run out this season. The sticks were a big part in the Admirals&8217; run to the state championship series before they were swept in two games by Northwest Rankin, and they have most of their position players back.

The Admirals dropped a 9-7 decision to Biloxi last week despite getting a three-run homer from Bo Bell. Pitching, turns out, has been the team&8217;s X-factor in a season that started out 1-5.

&8220;We&8217;re swinging the bats real well,&8221; Lindsey said. &8220;We&8217;ve been pretty good at times. In high school baseball, you have your good days and days where you&8217;re not playing so well. We need some pitching to step up. We&8217;re hoping if we can get some pitching from our younger guys we have the offense to get back in it with a couple of breaks.&8221;

The key for them &8212; as for Natchez and Jim Hill &8212; is to win that first game and avoid falling into the losers&8217; bracket. The Admirals could get out of the tournament with only two games, and the Bulldogs could do it in three.

A loss could put either of them playing at least four &8212; or five for the Bulldogs.

&8220;We don&8217;t have a (No.) 1, 2, 3 or 4,&8221; Williams said. &8220;We&8217;re probably going to throw Desmond (Smoot) against Jim Hill and save my four pitchers.&8221;