It wasn’t pretty, but the Huntington Hounds sewed up at least a tie for the district crown with a nine-inning, 13-12 win over Tallulah Tuesday night.

After Tallulah rallied from deficits of 5-0, 7-2 and 12-7 to force extra innings with a four-run seventh inning, Richard Steele finally ended the nearly four-hour marathon with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to drive in Zack Brown for the win.

“We’ve always had a problem with closing games,” Huntington head coach Mitch Ashmore said. “We have struggled with throwing strikes. Everybody knows that. We have to swing the bats well in order to win ballgames. I was proud of our guys for hanging back in there and getting the win.”

And swing the bats well the Hounds did, notching 14 hits on the night against two Tallulah pitchers.

And while it was senior night for Huntington (13-10, 6-1 in district play), a junior shined brightest, as Landon Willard notched three home runs in his first three trips to the plate and drove in eight runs for the Hounds.

A Willard grand slam in the bottom of the first inning gave Huntington an early 4-0 lead, and Willard then went deep again with a solo shot in the bottom of the third to make the score 6-2.

After Tallulah battled back to tie the game at 7 in the top of the fourth inning, Willard came to the plate again with the Hounds leading 8-7 and two men on base. Tallulah starter Albert Martin was pulled in favor of Cason Landrem, who promptly served up Willard’s third long ball on his first pitch to make the score 11-7.

Josh Lee picked up the win for Huntington, pitching the eighth and ninth innings. Landrem took the loss for the Trojans.

Willard was 3-for-5 from the plate for Huntington, and Jody Cottongin was 2-for-5 with one RBI. Trey Corbett batted 2-for-5 with a double, and Jordan Wilson was also 2-for-5.

Huntington will face WCCA Thursday for the opportunity to wrap up the division crown.