NATCHEZ — The Cathedral School softball team played its first home night game Thursday, but the new stadium lights were certainly not too bright for Lady Green Wave pitcher Mollie Devening.

Devening struck out 10 Loyd Star batters in the contest en route to a no-hitter and a 10-0 Cathedral victory.

Devening said the key to her success Thursday night was her ability to keep the Loyd Star hitters off balance.

“I had a good changeup that was really working, and my outside pitches (were working) too,” she said.

Despite not allowing a hit, Devening did have to pitch with runners on base. Cathedral made three errors, and Devening walked a batter and hit another. Cathedral head coach Gary Blackwell said what impressed him was Devening’s ability to pitch the team out of those situations.

“Mollie did an excellent job,” Blackwell said. “She was in jams two or three times and made her way out, and our defense helped her.”

Devening’s job was made easier early in the game when the Lady Green Wave pushed seven runs across in the bottom of the first inning.

Cathedral led the game off with five consecutive singles and tallied eight total hits in the first inning. Mckenzie Milligan and Kimble Devening each had two hits in the inning. The biggest hit in the inning came off the bat of Tori Edwards who scored two runs with a two-out double.

“We came out ready to hit the ball,” Blackwell said. “We work real hard on hitting, and we have athletes that can hit.”

The Lady Green Wave added a run in each of the next two innings. The first came when Beth Fortenbery reached on a single to lead off the second inning and came around to score when Mollie bounced into a fielder’s choice.

Kimble scored in the third inning on a single by Ginny Daggett to put Cathedral up 9-0 going into the top of the fourth inning.

Loyd Star pitcher Kelsey McCullough settled down after the third inning and retired six-consecutive Cathedral batters and prevented the Lady Green Wave from getting the 10-run rule in the fifth inning.

“We thought we might be able to put it away early, but (Loyd Star) hung in and made a game out of it,” Blackwell said.

In a game that was dominated by Mollie’s right arm, it was her bat that finally finished it for the Lady Green Wave.

With Daggett on third base, Mollie hit a hard ground ball to third base, and Daggett scored when Loyd Star third baseman Hannah Smith threw the ball to first base to get Mollie out.

Kimble Devening, Daggett and Fortenbery each finished the game with three hits and each scored two runs. Mollie led Cathedral with three RBIs.

Mollie said she has thrown several no-hitters before, but this one was special.

“It’s good for the first home game and the first time we played her at night,” she said.

The win pushed Cathedral’s record to 3-1 on the season, and the Lady Green Wave will wait a week until the hit the diamond again on March 9 when they face McComb.