Getting a feel for the game: Cathedral tops Natchez in scrimmage

Published 12:19 am Thursday, February 21, 2013

JAY SOWERS | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT Cathedral High School baserunner Peyton Jenkins, center, takes one final stride toward home plate before scoring a run early in the scrimmage against Natchez High School on Wednesday evening. Cathedral won the four-inning scrimmage 7-2. The Green Wave will open its season at the Loyd Star Tournament Saturday. Natchez will host its own tournament Saturday with games against Franklin County and Jefferson County.

JAY SOWERS | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT
Cathedral High School baserunner Peyton Jenkins, center, takes one final stride toward home plate before scoring a run early in the scrimmage against Natchez High School on Wednesday evening. Cathedral won the four-inning scrimmage 7-2. The Green Wave will open its season at the Loyd Star Tournament Saturday. Natchez will host its own tournament Saturday with games against Franklin County and Jefferson County.

NATCHEZ — After Monday night’s rain made playing conditions too poor at Chester Willis Field Tuesday, Natchez High School and Cathedral High School finally got a baseball scrimmage in Wednesday afternoon.

Originally scheduled for Tuesday, the Bulldogs and Green Wave opted to play their preseason game Wednesday to give the field an extra day to recover. Cathedral won the four-inning contest, 7-2, but both coaches said they were pleased with what they saw.

“It was a pretty good game,” NHS head coach Brian Kossum said. “I told the kids afterward that we’re not satisfied, but we’re proud of them. They came out here and played with a team that was probably a little bit better than them, and they hung with it and kept it respectable.”

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Cathedral used four pitchers in the contest — Sam Parker, Gabe Smith, Hayden Nunnery and Austin Chauvin — and Green Wave head coach Craig Beesley said he was glad all of them got work in. Except for Chauvin, all of them were freshmen.

“We didn’t pitch Thomas (Garrity) or Alex (Weadock), because we already knew what we had in them,” Beesley said. “I wanted to see what these freshmen could do, in a game-type situation, and I thought they did a good job.”

Cathedral exploded for five runs in the top of the first. Sam Parker had two RBIs that inning, while Chauvin, Jardarius Anderson and Christopher White each had an RBI.

Beesley said he was pleased that his pitchers responded well to the team’s early offensive success.

“They threw strikes,” Beesley said. “We got a five-run lead in the first inning, and the best thing you can do as a pitcher is go out there and throw strikes with a five-run lead, and we did that.”

Cathedral added a run in the second when Nunnery had a sacrifice fly to center field score Garrity. A single by Garrity in the top of the third drove home White, rounding out Cathedral’s scoring.

NHS got on the board in the bottom of the third when Sadarrius Pollard laced a double that scored Taderrius Woods and Dalvion Jackson.

“We still need to be able to put the ball in play more,” Kossum said. “I was happy we had the one big hit from Sadarrius Pollard, but we have to put the ball in play more.”

Parker got the win for Cathedral, while NHS starter Denzel Washington took the loss. Dalvion Jackson, Travez Lyles and Joseph Russell also pitched for the Bulldogs.

Cathedral opens its season in the Loyd Star Tournament Saturday, with the Green Wave playing McComb at noon and Loyd Star at 2 p.m. The Bulldogs will host the Natchez High Classic Saturday, with NHS playing Franklin County High School at 11 a.m. and Jefferson County High School at 1 p.m.