NATCHEZ — The Cathedral School baseball team will play an abbreviated double-header today at Chester-Willis Field with first place in Region 7-1A on the line.

Game one with region rival St. Aloysius was suspended in the bottom of the fifth inning Tuesday night, with Cathedral leading 6-3. St. Aloysius was threatening, however, with the bases loaded and no outs.

That game will be concluded today, and will be followed by game two between the region opponents.

“With (St. Aloysius) being 2-0 in the district and West Lincoln beating Bogue Chitto last night, we couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Cathedral baseball coach Craig Beesley said.

“If we can take care of the first game, and possibly go ahead and get the second one tomorrow, that will put us in first place.”

Cathedral is 8-4 on the season and 1-1 in the region.

These two games are the biggest district games of the season so far, Beesley said.

Cathedral was up 6-1 going into the fifth inning and had its chance to close out game one before the weather delay. But the Green Wave were unable to put St. Aloysius away in the fifth.

“If we could have gotten three outs the game would have been a complete game. But we went back out and had 10 to 15 minutes to get those three outs, and we just couldn’t get outs,” Beesley said.

Walks were a key problem with the Green Wave’s struggles to finish off St. Aloysius, and the Flashes threw in some hits as well, Beesley said.

The Green Wave left some insurance runs on base in the third and fourth innings and has had trouble closing games out all year, Beesley said.

“We got some timely, two-out, hits, but overall I don’t feel like we have that mentality of finishing teams off when we have the chance,” Beesley said.

If the Green Wave can hold on to win game one, Beesley thinks that a sweep is possible, he said. Mainly because St. Aloysius’ top two pitchers, Judson Gatling and Josh Eargle, both pitched Tuesday.

“I know we saw both of their (best) pitchers,” Beesley said.

“We have some guys we can throw, so I feel like if we get through game one and get out of this fifth inning, I feel good about our chance in game two.”

The fact that the two schools are rivals places even more importance on the two games, Beesley said.

“We’ve had some good games over the last couple of years, it’s turned into a good rivalry. In the past there have been some heated games, but it’s kind of calmed down, and the kids just get out there and play hard against each other,” Beesley said.

The completion of game one is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and game two will start about 30 minutes later.

“I think we are going to be alright (with the weather),” Beesley said.

“The fields are pretty good. If the sun comes out (today) we will be good. Right field might be a little sloppy, but the infield will be fine.”