NATCHEZ — It was one disastrous inning that left Natchez High School on the outside looking in Friday evening.

The Bulldogs played host to St. Martin High School in Game 1 of the first round of the MHSAA Class 6A playoffs. And what should have been a manageable first inning for NHS quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster.

“We should have ended the inning down 3-0, but we made two errors, and they went on to score 12 runs,” Golding said.

Those were the only runs scored in the game, as St. Martin went on to secure a 12-0 shutout in four innings.

NHS starting pitcher Dominique Salter gave up 12 runs, three earned, on nine hits with no strikeouts. St. Martin’s Tyler Quave went the distance, giving up just one hit, a single to Lee Jackson. The game was called after four innings due to the 12-runs-after-four mercy rule.

“Dominique gathered himself after that first inning, and so did the team,” Golding said.

The Bulldogs (4-11) will travel to St. Martin today for Game 2, which is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Despite the lopsided loss, Golding said he wasn’t down on his team after the game.

“(St. Martin is) a very good team, with some very good pitching,” Golding said. “They hit the ball well. We really didn’t play that bad. We had three good innings of baseball and one really bad inning of baseball.”