Cathedral scored nine runs in the bottom of the first inning to rally to beat Concordia Bank 11-6 in Concordia Tri-Parish Dixie Boys baseball action Wednesday in Vidalia.

Concordia Bank scored four runs in the top of the first, but Cathedral responded emphatically in its half, which included seven hits.

“We hit the ball real well,” Cathedral coach Seth Eidt said. “But we do, at times, try to figure out a way to lose instead of winning a game on defense, but our offense compensated pretty well for our defense pretty well tonight.”

One of those hits came from Jones Richardson, who smacked a two-RBI single.

Richardson said the summer league games are vital to the development of the players on the team.

“Whenever we hit like we did today, we normally come together as a team,” Richardson said. “We didn’t do great fielding in the first inning, but we didn’t let that get to us.”

Concordia Bank is comprised of players from the Monterey school system.

Concordia Bank added single runs in the second and third in addition to its four-run first inning rally.

Both teams featured middle school athletes from each school.

Concordia Bank was led by Ethan Clark, who walked twice, stole two bases and scored a run. Cooper Roach pitched in with a run-scoring double in the first.

“We want to be able to look back at these games as practice games (when we get to high school),” Richardson said. “We’re just learning the fundamentals.”

With two more games remaining on the schedule, Eidt said he is looking forward to what his squad can produce down the stretch.

“We’re trying to teach these kids just how to play defense,” Eidt said. “Most of them know how to hit the ball, but the defensive position (is what we’re working on). It seemed like we were out of position a lot at Cathedral on our middle school team this year, and we’re just trying to get them in the correct position.”