LIBERTY &045; It was almost the law of averages &045; four times Huntington had faced River Oaks, and three times the Lady Hounds took a one-run victory.

When the Lady Hounds were starting at a one-run deficit going into their last at-bat, they might have thought it all caught up with them. But a key hit from nine-hole hitter Bethany Morace sparked a rally, and the Lady Hounds claimed a 4-3 win in five innings to advance at the MPSA Class A South State tournament Saturday.

The Lady Hounds will play at 11 a.m. Monday against Kemper.

&uot;Our team did not have a good day,&uot; Huntington head coach Rut Horne said. &uot;We had two pop-flies in the infield that didn’t get touched. That’s just unbelievable. They bunted one time, and we didn’t cover first. Three of their five hits were in the infield that we should have gotten.

&uot;But the tail end of the lineup came through for us. It takes that. I just hope they keep playing like that.&uot;

Morace led off that inning with a single up the middle and went to second on a passed ball. Julie Moak sacrificed her to third base, and River Oaks went home on a grounder by Jessie Lee to short to get Morace at the plate, but she beat the throw to tie it at 3-3.

Lee stole second with Erin Hedrick at the plate, and Hedrick popped out for the second out. With Krystal Arnold at the plate, Lee was getting a good lead off second and took off when the catcher bobbled the ball on a pitch.

The catcher threw late to third, the ball got away from the third baseman and Lee scored the winning run.

River Oaks got a run in the first off Hedrick to take a quick lead, but the Lady Hounds answered with a run in the bottom when Lee singled and later came around to score on a passed ball.

The Lady Hounds got another run in the second when Moak singled in Megan Wilkinson.

Centreville at South State

RIDGELAND &045; The Lady Tigers took a nice step to advance at the South State tournament Saturday with a 9-0 win over Silliman and a 6-3 win over Riverfield.

Against Silliman, Kendall Madsen tossed a no-hitter in the four-inning contest while walking none. The Lady Tigers scored three in the first and six in the second off Silliman starter Taylor Tynes.

In the first, Kelly Simpson had the key hit with a double to drive in Amber Addington, Madsen and Haley Bowser.

In the second, Amber Brown and Shelly Vines scored before Madsen and Bowser each drove in runs. Bowser and Simpson each scored on passed balls.

The Lady Tigers will face Copiah at 10 a.m. Monday.