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NATCHEZ — With starting pitcher Martavis Woods struggling to find the strike zone, Natchez High School head baseball coach Dan Smith went to the bullpen and brought in Jamarius Bell to cool down Raymond High School’s offense.

And that’s just what Bell did as he struck out 11 batters in just five and one-third strong innings. He also got plenty of help from his own teammates as the Natchez High Bulldogs defeated the Raymond Rangers 10-4 last Wednesday night at Chester Willis Field.

And while Smith was thrilled with his team’s resilience as well as its offense, there was still one thing that had him somewhat frustrated but not as much as the previous two games — walks.

“We were hitting the ball decent. But we still had problems with walks. A couple of times they had runners on base, but they didn’t score. So, the walks didn’t hurt us as much,” Smith said.

And that was evident in the top of the first inning as Raymond scored three runs off Woods to take the early lead. Woods ended up lasting one and two-thirds innings and gave up three runs, all of them earned, on just one hit but also with seven walks and one hit batter to go with three strikeouts.

Enter Bell, who mowed down Rangers batters and, for the most part, kept them off balance. He allowed one earned run on six hits and even though he walked five in his time on the mound, there was little Raymond could do about it. The only run they scored off Bell was in the top of the third inning, which made it a 4-4 game.

Then Natchez High went to work in the bottom of the fourth and gave him all the run support he really needed. The Bulldogs scored three runs in that frame to give them a 7-4 lead. They added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and one run in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away.

“They (Raymond) struck out 14 times. One of (our two errors) was a bad bounce. It was a high hopper that hit off the third baseman’s head,” Smith said. “Overall, from top to bottom, we played a decent game.”

Charles Grant III led the Bulldogs’ eight-hit attack by going 2-for-4 with a triple. Chris Sewell went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three stolen bases.

“Chris, he’s playing pretty good. Charles is an eighth-grader,” Smith said. “We’ve still got a lot of room for improvement.”

Another player for Natchez High who stepped up was Draylen Scott, who went 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIs, one run scored, and was walked once. Ahmarrion Fletcher and Braylon McDaniel went 1-for-2 with two runs scored and each of there was walked once.

Brandon Hudson provide much of the offense for Raymond as he went 2-for-2 with a double, one RBI and one runs scored. He was also walked three times.

The Bulldogs snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 4-2 overall with the win. They played host to Cathedral High School at Chester Willis Field on Friday with the junior varsity game at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity game at 7 p.m.