Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

GALLMAN — Bray Welch hit a sacrifice fly that went deep enough to bring in the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning and capped off an amazing comeback as the Copiah Academy Colonels defeated the Cathedral High School Green Wave 8-7 last Tuesday afternoon in the MAIS District 4-5A opener for both teams.

Owen Jordan’s run-scoring sacrifice fly in the top of the third inning gave Cathedral at 6-2 lead. After that, Hadley Watts came on in relief of starting pitcher Will Drew and the Green Wave struggled at the plate against him.

Watts kept Copiah Academy in the game by holding the Green Wave to one unearned run on just three hits, striking out three batters and walking none over four strong innings. The Colonels started their rally by scoring two runs off starting pitcher Jordan to make it a 6-4 game.

After the Green Wave scored one run in the top of the sixth for a 7-4 lead, the Colonels struck for two runs off Eli Wilson in the bottom of the sixth to cut Cathedral’s lead to 7-6.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, Copiah Academy scored the game-tying run on a costly error by the Green Wave before Welch’s game-winning sacrifice fly for the second and final out of the frame off closer Landon French.

Doug Smith singled in two runs for Cathedral in the top of the first inning. After Copiah Academy scored one run in the bottom of the first inning, the Green Wave struck for three runs in the top of the second thanks to an error by the Colonels and a sac fly by Tripp Wimberly.

The Colonels scored one run in the bottom of the second inning to make it a 5-2 game before Jordan’s sac fly in the top of the third gave the Green Wave a four-run lead.

Tristan Fondren led Cathedral’s eight-hit attack by going 2-for-3 with a double and one run batted in. Walker Probst went 2-for-3 with one run scored and Drake Cox had a double.

Even though Copiah Academy had just five base hits, the Colonels had two multiple hitters of their own. Logan Albright went 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored while Nico Crechale was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and one RBI.

French was charged with the loss after allowing two unearned runs on no hits, two walks, and one hit batter to go with one strikeout. Jordan went four and one-third innings and gave up four runs three of them earned, on three hits with four strikeouts, five walks, and one hit batter. Wilson allowed two runs, both of them earned, on two hits, two walks, and three hit batters and he struck out two batters.

Watts the winning pitcher for the Colonels. Drew gave up six runs, only two of them earned, on five hits with one strikeout, one walk, and one hit batter.

With the loss, Cathedral fell to 9-8 overall and 0-1 in MAIS District 4-5A. The Green Wave is scheduled to host Copiah Academy for a district varsity doubleheader on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The games were originally scheduled to take place on Friday, but were moved to Thursday.