NEW WASHINGTON — Whether it was in the circle or at the plate, New Washington (9-7) had no solution for Charlestown’s Alli Webster.

The Charlestown (14-3) pitcher crossed up the Mustangs to the tune of 11 strikeouts in a 5-1 Pirate road victory on Wednesday.

“Other than walking a couple, I thought she pitched great,” Charlestown skipper Kevin Zollman said. “She had great control.”

Webster only walked two batters in the game, and one was a semi-intentional base issued to Lindsey Mudd in the only tough situation Webster faced in the game.

Through the first five innings, Webster had only surrendered two hits to the Mustangs, but in the sixth, it looked like New Washington was starting to figure out the Charlestown hurler. Emily Burke led the inning off with a single, and an out later, Kaira Doherty and Coari Robertson got back-to-back hits, with Robertson’s scoring a New Washington run.

After Kayla Sexton bunted to move the runners up to second and third, Webster loaded the bases on a five-pitch walk to Mudd. She then proceeded to strike out Kasie Doherty on three pitches to end the threat and the inning.

“We were trying to keep Mudd from hitting a home run,” Zollman said. “(Webster’s) got control, and that makes it easy. You make that decision and you just go with it. We took a chance.”

“I just knew that if I let them put the ball in play, my defense was behind me,” Webster said. “Unfortunately, they got a few hits that we weren’t able to get to, but we settled down and got the outs we needed.”

Charlestown struggled at the plate, but took advantage of several New Washington fielding miscues to produce runs. The Mustangs racked up four errors in the contest.

The Pirates got their first run in the second inning without the benefit of a hit. Lauren Crowe drew a one-out walk and stole second, and then came around to score when Gracynn Jennings put the ball in play and was safe at first on a catching error by the first baseman.

Webster helped her own cause in the third inning by scoring what turned out to be the winning run. With one out, Webster hit a high fly ball to right field that the fielder misjudged, allowing Webster to get all the way around to third base. Webster came home on a passed ball during Alyssa Price’s at-bat.

“I didn’t hit the ball very well, but it turned out to my advantage,” Webster said.

Charlestown finally got the bats working in the fifth inning. Morgan Ashby singled to center to open the frame, moving to second on an error. New Washington pitcher Whitney Morris looked like she had the situation under control when she got back-to-back strikeouts against Cassie Martin and Kaitlyn Henning, but Webster got on with a single, Price walked and Shelby Goedeker hit a two-RBI single on a line drive over Morris’ head to extend the lead to 4-0, Charlestown. Kaira Doherty took Morris’ place in the circle and struck out Alex Hutchinson to end the inning.

“The pitchers did extremely well. I left Morris in there too long,” New Washington coach Tim Sexton said. “Me and my assistant were talking about it, we were wanting to switch them.”

Charlestown and New Wash both face conference opponents today. New Washington hosts Southern Athletic Conference rival South Central, while Charlestown goes up against Brownstown Central in a criticla Mid-Southern Conference game at home. Brownstown is unbeaten in conference, while Charlestown has just one conference loss.

“We’re facing the No. 1 team in the conference right now, and I feel like it’s for us to win and them to lose,” Zollman said. “Our team is capable of doing it. We’re young, but I feel like I’ve got one of the best pitchers in this part of the state, and we’re going to roll the dice and go after them.”



CHARLESTOWN    011 021 0—5 4 1

NEW WASH    000 001 0—1 5 4

W — Webster (13-3). L — Morris (1-5). 3B — Webster (C).

Records — Charlestown 14-3, New Washington 9-7.