PASCAGOULA — The Cathedral Green Wave are advancing to the third round of the MHSAA Class 1A baseball playoffs, but it wasn’t without a test.

The Green Wave led 9-2 after five innings of play Thursday against Resurrection Catholic, but the Eagles didn’t go down easy.

“We couldn’t put them away,” Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. “We had chances to, but couldn’t.”

Resurrection rallied and scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to close the gap, but a five-run seventh from Cathedral put the game out of reach and secured a 16-8 win.

“I hope this series is a wake up call for us,” Beesley said. “We are going to have to play better. We know it’ll be harder each round and we’ve got to play good fundamental baseball.”

Despite pounding out 17 hits in the contest, Beesley was a bit disappointed it took the Green Wave bats so long to get going.

“We had 17 hits, but we only scored two runs in the first four innings,” Beesley said. “We didn’t swing well early in the game, but came on late and scored 14 runs in the last three innings.”

Every Cathedral starter recorded a hit in the game with Jacob Jenkins leading the way going 4-for-5 and knocking in two runs. Brock Farmer also had a big night going 3-for-5 with a homerun. Quinton Logan also added a homerun for the Green Wave.

Gabe Smith picked up the win for Cathedral, going six innings, and Beesley was pleased with the performance.

“Gabe gave us six good innings and allowed just one earned run. Reed came on in the seventh and did a good job, giving up just one run.”

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of the series is the Green Wave didn’t send their ace Logan to the mound.

Beesley said he hopes Logan will be involved in the next series, after suffering elbow tendinitis.

“His arm is feeling better, and he got a good report,” Beesley said. “We got through the series with other pitchers, and they all did a good job for us.”

Next up for Cathedral is a clash with Sacred Heart, who Beesley saidhe doesn’t know too much about.

“I know they are in the same district as Stringer and Resurrection,” he said. “They’ve got pretty good pitchers, and we know it’ll be tough.”

Southeast Lauderdale 9,

Franklin County 3

MEADVILLE — The Franklin County Bulldogs had their chances to extend their playoff series with Southeast Lauderdale Thursday night, but couldn’t pull through, falling 9-3.

“In the third inning it was tied at two and we had the bases loaded and popped out,” Franklin County head coach Brent Calcote said. “Then in the fifth, we were down 6-3 with the bases loaded and struck out. We just couldn’t get the timely hit. We didn’t perform when we had to.”

Chris Cantrel took the loss for the Bulldogs on the mound after pitching 4-and-a-third innings.

Ultimately, Calcote said he is proud of what his team accomplished this season.

“We had a good year, but I thought we could play another week or so,” he said. “This was a winnable series, we just didn’t get it done. We played hard all year, but just came up short at the end.”

With a young team, Calcote said he is looking forward to see what will happen with the program.

“I feel like we are going to be good,” he said. “We are returning nine kids with a lot of experience. The future looks good, we just have to keep getting better.”