NATCHEZ — The Cathedral baseball team knew it controlled its own destiny, and a win Friday night against visiting St. Aloysius would clinch the region title.

With that in mind, the Green Wave put together a performance that included nine hits and two pitchers combining for a three hitter to secure a 6-3 victory.

“This was a big game for us,” Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. “We had to win, and we were playing a good baseball team that plays fundamentally sound. I am glad to see us clinch.”

The win put the Green Wave at 5-1 in MHSAA Region 7-1A.

Cathedral sent out Thomas Garrity to start the contest and despite some early control issues — he walked three and hit three batters in the first two innings — he settled down and did not allow a hit through four innings of work.

Blake Martin relieved Garrity in the middle of the fifth inning after a couple of St. Al hits put the Green Wave in trouble. Martin was able to limit the damage and would close out the game for the Green Wave.

“Thomas struggled early, but he settled in and gave us four good innings,” Beesley said. “Then Blake gave us three good innings.”

Beesley said the Cathedral outfielders made some huge plays to limit St. Al’s scoring chances.

“Our outfield did a great job running down fly balls in the gap,” he said.

Beesley said he was especially pleased with a few plays made by right fielder Turner Janette.

St. Al left eight runners on base in the contest compared to Cathedral’s five, and St. Al head coach Derrik Boland said he thought that was the difference for his team.

“They got timely hits with runners in scoring position,” Boland said. “That’s something we will have to work on.”

Garrity helped his own cause with three singles and two runs for the Green Wave. Caleb Upton added two doubles for Cathedral.

“I’ve been hoping we would come around with the bats,” Beesley said. “We’ve struggled all year and hopefully we’re coming around.”

Cathedral jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Garrity led the inning off with a single, Upton followed with a double and Martin singled to score Garrity. Kyle Bradley followed Martin with an RBI-groundout to score Upton.

St. Al answered in the top of the second with one run on a walk and two hit batters. Matt Bell led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Matt Foley.

Cathedral stretched its lead to three in the bottom of the third inning. Martin scored on an RBI-single by Bradley. Bradley then came around to score on an error.

Garrity reached on a single in the bottom of the fourth and came around to score on a St. Al error to push the Green Wave lead to 5-1.

St. Al started to put some offense together in the top of the fifth when Foley led the inning off with a double. Pat Murphy followed with a single and then Matt Mims reached on an error.

Martin came in with no outs and held St. Al to just two runs that were both credited to Garrity. The Flashes cut their deficit to 5-3 in the inning.

Cathedral added an insurance run in the sixth when Daniel Huffines walked and came around to score on Upton’s second double of the game.

Cathedral (9-6, 5-1) will host Porter’s Chapel today.

St. Al (5-15, 2-4) will finish the season third in the region, Boland said. The Flashes will face St. Andrew’s at home today.