Mattoon High School baseball won its first Apollo Conference game of the season by beating rival Charleston 5-1 at Baker Field Thursday.  

This comes after Mattoon (3-16) lost 12-1 to the Trojans (13-4) the day before. The win ends 14 game losing streak for Mattoon. 

“We hadn’t won this month,” Mattoon head coach Jarod Kiger said. “We just kept pushing, the kids keep coming out and doing what we ask them to do every single day regardless of outcome.” 

Charleston opened the scoring with its only run of the day coming from a Russel Applegate single.  

It was one of only three hits the Trojans got all game. 

 “Mentally, we were flat,” Charleston head coach Jim Miller said. “We hit the ball but didn’t find any gaps.” 

Miller said players kept swinging at the first pitch. 

“We kept telling ‘you got a guy out there throwing pitches, make him throw some pitches. Be more selective’ and we were not,” he said.  “We tried to be too aggressive.” 

Mattoon reached base 20 times from six hits, two hit batters and 12 walks.  

“[We] made them pitch, throw strikes and got some guys on and actually drove them in,” Kiger said.  

Mattoon scored in the second after loading the bases when Logan Thompson hit a groundball to Charleston first basemen Alex Matheny tying the game. 

The next at bat, Jackson Horst hit a double over centerfielder Chase King scoring two runs.  

In the third Mattoon loaded the bases a second time, and a walk drove home its fourth run.  

Mattoon senior pitcher Matthew Miller threw a complete game only allowing one run. 

“Our pitcher threw an incredible game for us,” Kiger said.  

He said they can take this momentum into the next games. 

“It doesn’t get any easier and we’ve run through a gauntlet,” Kiger said. “I told them it just takes one game and maybe this is the spark we needed.” 

Miller said the most important thing going forward is the mindset. 

“There are pieces there are parts and their are players which one are you going to be?” he said. “We need to mentally be tough.” 

Charleston is back in action tomorrow at home against Neoga for senior day.  

Jason Coulombe can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].