NATCHEZ — Natchez High baseball coach Charlie Williams read the scouting report for Gulfport High before the Bulldogs’ game against the Admirals on Wednesday.

And despite the report being dead on, the Bulldogs still couldn’t play close to Gulfport in a 15-3 loss in the first round of the MHSAA Class 5A playoffs.

“The scouting report fit them to a T. I knew what they were going to do,” Williams said. “They were going to hit the ball real well, they like to steal bases and they make errors. But we didn’t put the ball in play enough to force them to make the errors.”

Natchez did, however, put the ball in the proper place for the Admirals to hit it all over the park.

Gulfport scored 15 runs on 15 hits, including doubles by Jay Bell and Colton Caver and a home run by Ladd Rhodes against starting pitcher Javon Washington, who went 5 2/3 innings.

“He kept us off balance early by throwing his breaking ball,” Gulfport coach Tim Dowdy said. “But we made some adjustments to it; we started staying inside of it, hitting the ball to right Williams said Washington pitched well, but his curve ball started hanging late in the game.

Dowdy’s game plan was to put the ball in play and hope for errors, and it worked. The Bulldogs had three errors and even more lackadaisical plays in the game.

“That’s been the strength of our team this year. We do put the ball in play and make contact, and we did a pretty good job of that tonight,” Dowdy said. “That’s our game — try to stay inside the ball and hit the ball to right center, try to make their defense make plays. We want to put pressure on the defense, and we were able to take advantage of some of their mistakes tonight and that helped us.”

The Admirals scored three runs in the top of the first, but the Bulldogs answered with two of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Trevon Chatman walked and reached second on a single by Brian Isaac, and a single by Washington loaded the bases. Melvin Davis’ walk scored one run, and a fielder’s choice play scored Isaac.

But the Bulldogs left two runners stranded in the second, third and fifth innings and one on base in the sixth and the seventh.

“A hit here and a hit there early in the game, and it would have been a ballgame — we’d have still been in it,” Williams said. “We have to learn to execute the things we are trying to execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that.

“We had too many weak ground balls instead of trying to drive the outside pitch to right field like they did.”

Both Natchez (12-8) and Gulfport (16-10) will travel to Oak Grove on Friday. The Admirals will play Oak Grove first, and Natchez will play the loser of that game.

Williams said his team would be in a much better position if they played consistently throughout an entire game.

“The difference from us being 20-4 instead of 12-8 is hustle,” he said. “We’re being out-hustled by the other team. When we get down, we just don’t hustle like we should.”