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NATCHEZ — After a stunning 13-3 loss on the road the District 3-5A No. 4 seed Brookhaven Academy Cougars in Game 1 of the first round of the 2024 MAIS Class 5A South State Playoffs, the District 4-5A champion and No. 1 seed Cathedral High School Green Wave is now in a must-win situation to keep its season going.

With two days to get ready for what head coach Andrew Beesley hopes will be two games at Chester Willis Field on Friday afternoon, Cathedral must get back to doing the things that led the Green Wave to a 21-win regular season if it is to keep it dreams of being a serious South State and State championship contender alive.

“I felt like we need to throw more strikes and make the routine plays behind them. Things that we’ve done well all year that we struggled on Tuesday night,” Beesley said.

Beesley added that overall it was not a very good game for the Green Wave — especially considering that Cathedral scored three runs in the top of the first inning. After that, the visiting team in Game 1 was held scoreless the rest of the way.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Cougars had one of their best offensive games of the season with 13 base hits and took advantage of two Green Wave errors. Beesley noted that those were the two things that frustrated him the most.

“We had some good at-bats, we just hit a lot of balls at them. The ball will find the holes,” Beesley said. “I was more concerned about our defense and pitching.”

Game 2 of this first-round best-of-three series starts at 4:30 p.m. If Cathedral (21-5) wins that game, then a third and deciding game between the Green Wave and the Cougars will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.

“We’re looking for a big crowd Friday. Two good team battling for what we hope will be a doubleheader,” Beesley said.