The Huntington Hounds, the top seed in the MPSA District 5-1A baseball tournament, had little trouble in defeating the fourth-seeded Pine Hills Wildcats 16-2 Tuesday night at the Huntington baseball field.

With the win, Huntington, now 17-4, advanced to the winner’s bracket to play second-seeded Amite School Center, which defeated Trinity 6-5 in the early game Tuesday, at 7 p.m. today while Pine Hills dropped to the loser’s bracket and will play the third-seeded Saints in an elimination game at 4:30 p.m. today.

Barrett Kiser gave up no hits, struck out five and walked two in three innings to pick up the win for Huntington. Steven McKenzie took the loss for Pine Hills.

Trey Mason led Huntington’s 12-hit attack by going 3-for-4 with two doubles, which were the Hounds’ only extra-base hits of the game.

John Mark Bonnette, Kenneth Clayton and Wyatt Kemp each went 2-for-3.

&uot;Our guys were aggressive at the plate,&uot; said Huntington assistant coach Michael McAnally. &uot;We swung the bats well. Trey Mason hit the ball well.&uot;

Unlike during the regular season when Huntington got off to slow starts and rallied in the latter innings, the Hounds took control by scoring five runs in the first and second innings.

&uot;We scored runs early which seemed to help the kids’ confidence,&uot; McAnally said.

Huntington added six runs in the fourth inning for a 16-1 lead before Pine Hills scored one run in the top of the fifth for the final score.