WOODVILLE &045; Being the recipient of 15 walks and five hit batsmen for a while didn’t appear to be enough.

Huntington had a rough start itself at Wilkinson County Christian Academy Thursday, but the Hounds got solid pitching from Bronson Rhodes and defense behind him to take a 23-9 win over the Rams in the Hounds’ District 7-1A opener.

The Rams put 20 runners on without a hit, and the two teams combined for 32 runs on 12 hits.

&uot;It’s a win regardless, and we’ll take it,&uot; Huntington coach Michael McAnally said. &uot;It’s a new season when you get into district. This is kind of a make-or-break week (next week) in district. Hopefully this will give us some confidence, and we can continue to get wins.&uot;

The Hounds (2-7, 1-0) didn’t start off strong against WCCA starter Jamie Patrick but took advantage of the Rams’ ineffectiveness on the mound to pull away. The Hounds scored two in the first when Zach Calhoun singled in Patrick Clayton and Austin Butler for a 2-0 lead.

The Rams scored three in the bottom half off Huntington starter Will Moak and tagged six runs on the board in the third as Moak exited for Bronson Rhodes with a 9-3 lead heading into the fourth.

Rhodes, meanwhile, toss three shutout innings after that while the Hounds scored eight runs in the fourth, six in the fifth and six more in the sixth to end the game.

&uot;He (Patrick) kept us off stride a little bit,&uot; McAnally said. &uot;He was a left-hander, and the ball moved away from us. But then he couldn’t throw strikes. Bronson settled down after that (third). When they put the ball in play, we didn’t make the plays behind (Moak).&uot;

Monterey 19, Forest 4

MONTEREY, La. &045; The Wolves are sure to be in the hunt for the District 3-B title again, and so far so good.

Now they go to Kilbourne Thursday in hopes of staying strong. It’s the Hawks that may be the wild card in a league that’s been Monterey and Harrisonburg slugging it out for the top spots.

&uot;I hadn’t heard anything about Kilbourne,&uot; Monterey head coach Hank Zizzi said. &uot;I don’t know how strong Kilbourne is. I’ve heard just enough to think they’ll be in the running.&uot;

The Wolves (7-2, 1-0) started thinking about Kilbourne midway through their contest with Forest after posting an 8-0 lead after two. The wind was blowing out at the park in Monterey, and the Wolves got five in the first and three in the third off Forest starter Billy Sims.

The Bulldogs got two in the third and two in the fourth on two-run

homers from Sims and Cody Matheny off Monterey starter Phillip Bryan, but that was about it.

&uot;We had a good hitting day,&uot; Zizzi said. &uot;The wind was blowing, and it carried a couple balls out. Phillip looked pretty good. He hung two pitches &045; well, he didn’t really hang them &045; they just tomahawked them. They hit it up, and it kept going and going and going.&uot;

Monterey got 11 runs in the fourth thanks to three-run homer from Ryan Kemp and a two-run homer from Matt Shively.

&uot;I was pleased with the fielding,&uot; Zizzi said. &uot;We didn’t have any errors.&uot;

The hitting, pitching and fielding all came together.&uot;