Charleston High School softball was outhit 13-2 in it’s 11-0 run-rule shortened five inning loss to Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg Wednesday afternoon at Karch Field.

Charleston (7-7) was behind right from the start, as the Trojans were behind 5-0 before grabbing bats to hit in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman starting pitcher Meg Ritchey (2-1) was unable to get an out and allowed four earned runs on three walks and one hit. She was tagged with the loss.

Junior Ella Price entered the game and pitched three and two thirds innings. Despite allowing 10 hits and six earned runs, she was able to record some key outs to stop the Hatchets’ otherwise relentless offense.

“She was getting the pop ups, the ground balls, what we needed in the moment to kind of shut it down just a little bit and kind of slow it down,” Trojans head coach Macey McElravy said. “So, I thought she did a fantasic job of that.”

Senior Avery Beals had the only two hits for the Trojans. After reaching base on an infield single to lead off the bottom of the first inning, Beals stole second base after swimming around the shortstop’s tag. She was doubled off to end the inning, however, after junior Railyn Cox lined out to the centerfielder and the throw back in just beat a diving Beals.

Beals’ second hit came in the fourth inning. She was able to get to second base on a throwing error but was left stranded at third.

The offense was quiet outside of Beals, as the Trojans only had two other baserunners both on walks issued to Cox in the fourth inning and to freshman Selena Hernandez-Raymer in the fifth.

Charleston struggled against Hatchet starting pitcher Kendra Hayes (10-4). She threw her ninth complete game this year only allowing two hits and two walks while striking out four. Her ERA dropped to 1.48 in the winning effort.

“I think she was doing a really good job of hitting her spots,” McElravy said. “I think our girls were really out front and not waiting back and getting their pitch.”

McElravy said Charleston’s approach wasn’t aggressive enough. It allowed Hayes to get ahead of the Trojan hitters in the count and use her change up, which was giving them issues all game.

Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg is a smaller school that competes against Illinois High School Association class 1A teams in the postseason. In the regular season, the Hatchets try to schedule a mix of games against bigger schools, like Charleston, to better prepare them for the postseason.

“We always want to play tough competition, that’s what prepares you for postseason,” Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg head coach Lindsay Krumreich said. “We like playing these bigger schools because they do give us better competition. It doesn’t do us any good necessarily to play some lover level 1A teams.

Charleston remains home and returns to Apollo Conference action tomorrow when it faces Mt. Zion in a doubleheader. The Braves were the team that ended Charleston’s season in the regional final last season.

“We got to turn the page, and we got to turn it quickly,” McElravy said. “Tomorrow we got to come out with our foot on the gas.”

Game one of tomorrow’s doubleheader begins at 4:30 p.m.

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].