NATCHEZ — Cathedral’s fast-pitch softball team had a tough time in the top of the first inning against West Lincoln in its first game of the season Thursday afternoon at the Natchez-Adams Girls Softball Complex.

After that it was all Lady Green Wave – on the mound, at the plate and with their defense. Even though they had just five hits in the game, they rallied to hammer the Lady Bears 13-3 in five innings.

West Lincoln hit the ball well against pitcher Mollie Devening and took advantage of Cathedral’s only two errors of the game to jump out to an early 3-0 lead.

“They came out swinging the bats in the first inning. We made our errors in the first inning,” Cathedral head coach Gary Blackwell said. “After that first inning we settled down. Mollie settled down.”

The Lady Green Wave took the lead for good by scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning. That was enough offense for Devening, who pitched four straight scoreless innings and finished with five strikeouts and three walks.

“She got her pitches going. She was throwing the pitches she needed to to get ground balls,” Blackwell said. “Got the butterflies out of us after the first inning. We made the defensive plays we needed to.

They would go on to score four more runs in the bottom of the second, two in the bottom of the third and three in the bottom of the fourth.

They were also patient at the plate against West Lincoln pitching as Kayla (no last name given) walked 14 batters while striking out just three.

“We were able to come back in the bottom of the first. They were struggling with their pitching. We were able to capitalize,” Blackwell said. “We’ve got some things we need to work on. We had a few base-running errors. That’s something we’ve got to work on. For the first game, I was pleased.”

Cathedral (1-0) plays at Wesson today with the junior varsity game at 5 p.m. and the varsity game at 6 p.m. The Lady Green Wave will then play at the Franklin County Invitational Tournament on Saturday. They will take on Lawrence County at 9:30 a.m., Natchez High at 2 p.m. and Brookhaven at 3:30 p.m.

Franklin County 15, Brookhaven 1 (4 innings)

BROOKHAVEN — It took one inning for the Franklin County Lady Bulldogs to get their bats going, but once they did the Brookhaven Lady Panthers were in big trouble.

Franklin County scored eight runs in the bottom of the second inning and got a strong performance on the mound from Destiny Dedeaux to defeat Brookhaven in four innings Thursday night.

“We finally got our basketball girls. We can do some rotating with the lineup. We’ve got some depth this year,” Franklin County head coach Dana Smith said.

Dedeaux held Brookhaven scoreless until the top of the fourth inning. She allowed one run on three hits, struck out nine Lady Panthers batters and walked four. At the plate she went 2-for-3 with a double. One of those three hits she gave up was a double by Madeline Delaughter.

The defense behind her was magnificent as well as the Lady Bulldogs committed no errors.

“Destiny’s throwing real well. She’s holding her own. She’s going to help us a lot this year,” Smith said. “We played defensively sound and we hit the ball well. Brookhaven’s a good young team and it’s always good to play well against them.”

Franklin County (3-0) broke open a scoreless game with its eight-run barrage in the bottom of the second. The Lady Bulldogs added three runs in the bottom of the third and then four in the bottom of the fourth. As a team, they had 12 hits while the Lady Panthers aided their cause by committing five errors.

Morgan Knapp went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and Desiree Buie 3-for-4 with a double. Kacey Smith was 2-for-4 with a double and Emily Zumbro had a double of her own.

Franklin County takes on Bogue Chitto at 4 p.m. and Vicksburg at 5:15 p.m. today at the Franklin County Invitational Tournament.

Monterey 10, Delhi Charter 6 (8 innings)

DELHI, La. — Ellen Bairnsfather pitched seven strong innings and then came back in during the bottom of the eighth inning to shut down a pesky Delhi Charter team as the Lady Wolves rallied to defeat the Lady Gators.

Monterey (2-3) had a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, but Delhi Charter responded by scoring three runs to take a 4-3 lead. The Lady Wolves scored two runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-4 lead, but the Lady Gators sent the game into extra innings by scoring one run in the bottom of the seventh.

Then the Lady Wolves scored five runs in the top of the eighth – as many runs as they had total in the first seven innings – for a 10-5 lead. The Lady Gators scored one run in the bottom of the eighth, but this time there would be no rally thanks to Bairnsfather.

Bairnsfather allowed five hits, struck out just two batters and walked one in picking up the win. She also had a big game at the plate, going 3-for-5 with a double and a triple. Karlee Woodruff also had three hits to help lead Monterey’s 13-hit assault.

B. Harrell and D. Killion each had a triple while A. Williams had a double for Delhi Charter.

Monterey will participate in the Tioga Tournament this weekend.