FERRIDAY, La. &045; Franklin Academy standout pitcher Heidi Lee isn’t where she needs to be this early in this season.

Lee, however, was the least of worries for Huntington head coach Rut Horne. His Lady Hounds, like Lee, have a ways to go before they start playing good, sound softball.

Lee and the Lady Cougars had the upper hand Tuesday in a 7-3 win as both teams enter their first full week of game action in the 2004 season.

&uot;Erin (Hedrick) pitched a good game,&uot; Horne said. &uot;Our youth showed in the outfield once again with fly balls landing in front of people. But we had the one bad inning in the infield, too. I thought Erin did a super job. I guarantee you the legitimate hits were one, two or three &045; maybe.&uot;

It was a tough day for Hedrick, who allowed just three hits in the first four innings before the wheels came off behind her in the fourth. The Lady Cougars put it in play in the fifth and took advantage of four Huntington errors in that inning to score four runs and break open a 1-1 tie.

Then the Lady Cougars continued to make contact but played solid behind Lee in the field.

&uot;We woke up and played defense,&uot; FA head coach Mike Kramer said. &uot;I don’t know why we slept through the first four (innings). I think they’ve got a good team. (Hedrick) has got a hard row. She came up the first two years, and now she’s the only one left out of that group.

&uot;We felt like we’d hit the ball and make them field it &045; just let it roll out and make them make some tough plays. Speed is deadly.&uot;

The Lady Cougars had some baserunners who could really move, including leadoff batter Ashley Chapman. But in the fourth it was the bottom of the order that got things started when Kasey Guimbellot reached first on an error and Emily Collins followed with a bunt that resulted in an overthrow all the way to the right field corner.

It scored Guimbellot and put Collins at third, but Chapman grounded out back to the mound to keep Collins at third. Sam Shipman then reached on an error to score Collins, and Lindsey Walley reached on another error to score Shipman for a 4-1 lead.

Katie Kincaid then singled in Walley for the fifth run.

&uot;When they did get hits, most of the time they had guys on base,&uot; Horne said. &uot;They had only two hard-hit balls on the day. They have a good team. We have a defensive weakness, and they exploit it.

&uot;(We’re) eighth-graders and ninth-graders. Our outfield was all ninth-graders, and they played like it.&uot;

Hedrick helped her own cause in the fifth with a hard single off Lee to score Jessie Lee and Julie Moak to cut the lead to 5-3. Then Heidi Lee found a little bit of a rhythm, and the left-hander didn’t allow a hit after that and retired the final seven batters of the game.

Heidi Lee, who opened the season with a no-hitter over Hillcrest Christian, yielded six hits while striking out just four.

&uot;She started pitching ahead in the count and making them swing at her pitch instead of starting out 2-0 every time,&uot; Kramer said. &uot;She played ASA ball this summer. She’s not where we want her to be right now. I don’t know. She’s doing something a little bit different, but we don’t know what it is. We don’t have her quite where we want her to be, but 30 games from now I think we will.&uot;

The Lady Hounds made contact on Heidi Lee most of the game and had a chance to turn the tide a bit early. In the third they put runners on second and third with one out and Hedrick up at the plate, and the senior lined one deep on the dirt at second base.

Shipman came up with the catch for the first out, and Horne sent Jessie Lee from third to try and score. Shipman threw a bullet to Kincaid at the plate for a double play to end the inning.

A run would have given the Lady Hounds a 2-1 lead, and it was a call Horne said he’d like to take back. On deck was Krystal Arnold, who singled in a run in the first inning.

&uot;I really thought I made a mistake there,&uot; he said. &uot;If I would have bunted (Hedrick), we would have scored some runs. That would have put them behind. I shouldn’t have sent her with Krystal coming up to bat.&uot;