NATCHEZ — A new approach was necessary, since Wesson High School beat Cathedral School 9-8 the last time the two teams played March 1.

So, Lady Green Wave starter Mollie Devening decided not to let the Wesson batters square up on the ball like they did earlier this season.

The results were good for the Lady Green Wave: Cathedral got a 2-1 victory Monday, and Devening held the Lady Cobras to just one hit while inducing eight groundball outs.

“I threw a lot of outside pitches,” Devening said. “The last time we played them, they smoked the ball, so I tried to stay away from them today.”

Devening’s only surrendered hit was to opposing pitcher Mak Rials, who launched a solo home run in the fourth to score the Lady Cobras’ lone run of the game.

Wesson’s other four baserunners came on errors by the Cathedral defense, but Lady Green Wave head coach Gary Blackwell said he was impressed with his team’s play in the field overall.

“Today’s defense played great,” Blackwell said. “Everyone was calm and played their game. (The errors) were just tough plays. We had to move everyone around on defense today.”

And it was a spectacular defensive play that ended up saving the game for the Lady Green Wave in the top of the third inning.

With one out, Wesson’s Sarah Robinson reached on an error by Cathedral’s Tori Edwards at third base. In the next at-bat, Ashton Newman hit a slow roller up the first base line, and first baseman McKenzie Milligan charged the ball.

Milligan was knocked over by Newman as Newman was headed to first, and Milligan was unable to get control of the ball and tag Newman out. As Newman rounded first, Milligan scrambled to get the ball to Devening, since Milligan was unable to make a throw on the ground. Center fielder Ginny Daggett, who normally plays in the infield, covered second base and got the throw in time by Devening in order to tag Newman out before Newman reached the bag.

Meanwhile, Robinson tried to take advantage of the Cathedral fielders’ focus on Newman and score, but Daggett immediately threw home to catcher Kimble Devening after tagging Newman out. Kimble tagged Robinson out at home, completing an impressive 3-1-8-2 double play.

Daggett had stitches on her face from an injury she sustained in Saturday’s game against McComb, and the team didn’t want to risk her aggravating the injury by attempting tags in the infield. But Blackwell was glad she made an exception that inning, he said.

“We had to move everyone around today,” Blackwell said. “Ginny coming in to second base saved us. The girls were smart and knew what to do in that situation.”

Cathedral scored its two runs in the bottom of the second. A single by Shannon Mire plated Mollie for the first run. After Cathedral loaded the bases, Kimble singled in Mire for the second run.

In the top of the seventh, Mollie had to work to close it out for Cathedral. Shauntay Walker led off for Wesson and reached on an error by second baseman MacKenzie Watts. Watts brushed the tough play off, though, snagging a popup in the next at-bat for out No. 1. From there, Mollie got a strikeout and another popup to end the game.

“Our team knows for sure that the final three outs are the toughest,” Mollie said. “When we played Salem, we had two outs on them and they came back and beat us.

“You just can’t think about (the errors). When you do, you always throw badly. That’s what happens to me.”

But there was no bad throwing today from his starter, Blackwell said.

“This is one of the better game’s we’ve played this year,” he said. “(Mollie) had control, and she didn’t get upset and lose her composure.”

Mollie finished with five strikeouts. Watts tallied a double, and Kimble finished 2-for-3 for the Lady Green Wave.

Cathedral rose to 17-9-1 on the season.