McCOMB – On Monday night, the Brookhaven baseball team openedplay in the 2003 McComb Coca-Cola Invitational Baseball Tournament.The Panthers used a balanced effort to author a 16-9 win over theNatchez Cathedral Green Wave at Rotary Field.

Brookhaven plays 5A power Warren Central this afternoon at 2:20p.m., on Rotary Field.

Brookhaven 16, Cathedral 9

The Panthers (7-4) got good run production from their offenseand a superb pitching effort from junior right-hander BrooksHall.

Hall tossed 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 3 hits. He walked 1and struck out 12 Green Wave batters.

“Brooks did a good job for us tonight,” said Panther head coachRandy Spring.

Josh Anderson relieved Hall in the fifth, with Hall returning tothe mound in the sixth.

Brookhaven scored in every inning except the sixth and was aidedby 10 Cathedral errors.

The Panthers opened a 14-1 lead heading into the bottom of thefifth. Anderson (3), Reggie Smith (2), Justin Sykes (3), Hall, AdamOgden (2) and Josh Townsend (2) scored for Spring and assistantsJaymie Palmer, Jeremy Albritton and Dewayne Oberschmidt.

Cathedral (1-1), coached by Craig Beesley, scored its lone runduring the Brookhaven spurt on a solo homer by Wyler Murray.

The Green Wave, playing in only their second game of the season,used the bottom of the fifth to cut their deficit to 14-7.Cathedral sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning. Run supportcame from Chris Norris, Garrett Jones, Rodney Daggett, John PaulKenda, Drew Burns and Chris Rasco.

“This is only our second game of the year,” said Beesley whoseteam defeated Lawrence County 7-4 in earlier tournament playMonday. “We have had five rainouts so far. Mother Nature hasn’tbeen kind to us.”

Sykes and Hall would each double in the seventh and a Cathedralerror would allow both runners to score. Hall shut down the side inthe bottom of the seventh to pick up the win.

Corey Walker suffered the loss for Cathedral. He pitched 4.2innings and allowed 7 runs on four Panther hits. He walked 2 andstruck out 2. Andrew Kaiser and Preston Hicks came on in relief ofWalker.

Sykes and Hall led the Panther offensive. Each hitter had 2doubles and a single. Sykes scored 4 times while Hall scored twiceand had 4 RBIs. Ogden had 3 singles, scored and 2 RBIs. Andersonscored 3 runs. Reggie Smith scored twice.