FERRIDAY, La. – With two outs and the bases empty it didn’t appear the Huntington Hounds would get much done in the bottom of the first. But appearances can be deceiving. A single by Luke Davis got the Hounds’ offense jump started, and they would go on to send eight more hitters to the plate as Huntington took a 7-0 lead before Franklin Academy could get out of the inning.

The two-out rally provided the majority of the offense in the contest as Huntington improved to 6-3 on the year with a 9-0 win over the Cougars.

While the rally was impressive, the pitching of the Hounds’ Barrett Kiser was even more so.

Kiser went six scoreless innings while allowing only four hits and striking out 10. During one stretch in the middle innings he recorded nine-consecutive outs.

&uot;He (Kiser) has given us solid outings all year, but he was really on tonight,&uot; Huntington Head Coach Mitch Ashmore said. &uot;All year he has been able to stay ahead in the count. He has also been able to spot his pitches better than he did in past years.&uot;

Six of the Hounds’ 10 hits and seven of their nine runs came during the decisive bottom half of the first.

Davis got the ball rolling with his single, and he was moved into scoring position on a single by Toby Wilson. Wyatt King opened the scoring when his RBI single scored Davis for a 1-0 lead. One batter later the Hounds’ advantage would grow to 3-0 when Kenneth Clayton brought in two runs with a double.

Back-to-back errors by the Cougars allowed another run to score and kept the rally alive before Patrick Clayton and Kiser added consecutive run scoring doubles to give Huntington the 7-0 lead.

&uot;I thought we did a better job of putting the ball in play tonight than we have done earlier this year,&uot; Ashmore said.

Another Cougar error led to Huntington’s next run. In the bottom half of the second the Hounds’ Wilson reached on an error by the shortstop. Two batters later he was plated on an RBI single as Kenneth Clayton collected his third RBI of the game.

The final run of the contest was scored in the bottom of the sixth when Kiser singled and moved into scoring position on a double by Davis. Wilson then collected the RBI with a sacrifice fly.

Kiser gave way to relief pitcher Will Moak in the top of the seventh, and Moak closed out the game with a three up and three down performance that include two strikeouts.