LIBERTY &045; As young as they are, give the Huntington Lady Hounds credit for sticking together and improving.

They emerged from the first day of the MPSA Class A South State tournament a first-round winner to advance to the second round on Saturday at Amite School Center. The Lady Hounds got a solid outing from Erin Hedrick and solid defensive play behind her to down Porter’s Chapel, 2-1, in six innings.

The Lady Hounds will play Franklin Academy at 11 a.m. Saturday.

&uot;Whitney (Bradford) had been talking and joked in practice if we lose that first game she was going to kill herself,&uot; Huntington head coach Brandon Gousset said. &uot;We joked about that, but they were pumped up. We were playing a team seeded higher than us. Everybody went out and took care of business.&uot;

The Lady Hounds, fresh off a Monday night game where seven errors were costly in a 6-2 loss to Amite, had just one error the entire game and got a two-hitter from Hedrick for the win.

The game ended due to time limit after the fifth inning with the score tied at 1-1, and the Lady Hounds put Sarah Loomis on base to start the sixth based on the international tie-breaker rule. Jessie Moak’s sacrifice bunt moved her to third, and Katie Moak’s groundout to shortstop scored Loomis for the 2-1 lead.

In the bottom half, however, PCA put its leadoff hitter on second base to start the inning. The next batter moved her to third on a sacrifice, but Hedrick got the next batter to strike out for the second out. Lindsey McCool then flied out to Amber Smith in right field to end the game.

Hedrick finished with one walk and three strikeouts.

&uot;They hit the ball pretty well,&uot; Gousset said. &uot;Pretty much everything was working for (Hedrick) today. We made seven errors on Monday but had just one today.&uot;

The Lady Eagles rallied in the bottom of the fifth but couldn’t put a run across. With runners at second and third with one out, a PCA batter lined a hard grounder up the middle that Hedrick snagged to keep it from going into center.

The runner at third was caught in between bases, and Hedrick fired to Katie Moak, who ran down the runner heading to home for the second out. Hedrick struck out the next batter to end the inning.

The Lady Hounds scored a run in the third off PCA starter Lauren Johnson to take the lead. Bradford reached on an error to lead off, went to second on Jessie Lee’s sacrifice and scored on a Hedrick single.

PCA scored in fourth to tie it up.

Centreville 12, Simpson 0

BROOKHAVEN &045; Centreville pitcher Kendall Madsen fired a five-inning perfect game Wednesday to move along the No. 1-seeded Lady Tigers into the second round of the Class AA South State tournament.

Madsen struck out four and was solid as the Lady Tigers jumped on Simpson with six runs in the first, four in the second and two in the third before the game was called after five innings.

Misty Stelly doubled in two runs in the first inning, while Madsen tripled to lead off the second inning. In the third Madsen scored on a steal of home, and Kelly Simpson singled in Jenae Jackson for the 12-0 lead.

The Lady Tigers play at 11 a.m. Saturday against Riverfield, a 5-3 winner over Central Hinds Wednesday.

River Oaks 12, WCCA 2

LIBERTY &045; The Lady Rams fell to River Oaks in their third game of the day to get eliminated from the tournament.

WCCA opened the day as the No. 7 seed and thumped Humphreys Academy, 14-1, to face Amite School Center in the second round. The Lady Rebels posted a 6-0 win to send the Lady Rams to the losers’ bracket game against River Oaks.

River Oaks will play the loser of the Franklin Academy-Huntington contest at 12:40 p.m. Saturday.