LIBERTY &045; It’s not something to make a living off of, but right now Trinity head coach Matt Mason isn’t turning away from it.

It’s a spark at the plate from eighth-graders Clint Easom and Matthew Freeman, and the Saints are following suit in their run in the District 7-A tournament. Both got key hits early in the game before the No. 3-seeded Saints took a 13-3 win over No. 2 seed WCCA Monday at Amite School Center.

The Saints will face Amite Thursday in a semifinal of the double-elimination tournament. Huntington lost to Amite Monday but had its losers’ bracket game with WCCA postponed due to rain.

But the Saints overcame a 3-2 deficit late to put the game away with three in the fifth and eight in the sixth.

&uot;We had runners on early in the game and had some baserunning mistakes,&uot; Mason said. &uot;But my eighth-graders stepped up and got us started. Once they got on, we started hitting. From the fourth inning on, we got timely hits. We had a couple of good bunts that we put on the ground. We executed well.&uot;

The Saints hit the ball sporadically off Rams starter Brad Pritchard, but the WCCA had to pull him when Olive made his third trip to the mound in the sixth inning. The Saints had a 5-3 lead heading into the sixth inning, got some key hits and continued when the Rams brought in Collin Dor.

The Saints got four straight singles, took advantage of some WCCA errors and got a huge double from Brandon Geter when he drove in Walt Ketchings and Stevan Ridley.

&uot;It was a good game up until then,&uot; Olive said. &uot;But with mental errors like that, it’s hard to win. They hit the ball real well and put it into play, and we didn’t handle it. We gave them some bases, and they took advantage.&uot;

The Saints led 2-0 in the second when Easom singled in a run and Gregory Ketchings was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. But the Rams tacked on one in the second and two in the third off starter Walt Ketchings, who left in the middle of the fourth for reliever Andy Moon.

Moon then held the Rams scoreless and got the win.

&uot;Walt’s fastball was live tonight, but he didn’t have real good control of his breaking ball and his changeup,&uot; Mason said. &uot;He did a good job, but I knew eventually they would see his fastball without his breaking ball working. I brought in Andy, and it worked out. And we played good defense behind them.&uot;

Amite SC 10, Huntington 7

The No. 4-seeded Hounds could be one of the more dangerous teams right now, and midway through this contest they found themselves holding a 6-3 lead over top seed Amite.

That came courtesy of a Will Moak grand slam, but the Rebels answered with a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and four in the sixth to reclaim the lead and get the win. Brady Brabham sparked the Rebels with a solo home run and five runs driven in.

&uot;It was a pretty good game,&uot; Hounds head coach Mitch Ashmore said. &uot;We were in the ball game. The Brabham kid &045; we just couldn’t get him out. He had some clutch hits for them.&uot;

The Hounds took a 2-1 lead early but trailed 3-2 in the fourth when Moak hit the grand slam for the 6-3 lead. That gave starter Jacob Bonnette room to work, but he reached his pitch count and left in favor of Moak in the sixth with the score tied at 6-6.

&uot;We played them a good ball game, especially after they drummed us last time,&uot; Ashmore said. &uot;(The slam) was a big hit. That put us up, and we felt good about it.&uot;