Charleston's Colin Gilooly dives into first on a pickoff attempt while Kelly first baseman Bryce Faulkner waits to catch the throw. Gilooly was safe on the play. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat)

CHARLESTON -- After a rough start to this season, the Kelly Hawks put together a nice game to finally get their first win of the season against the Charleston Bluejays, 7-4, who was undefeated coming into Monday afternoon's contest.

"I think we played as complete of a game that we could play," Kelly head coach Nathan Wills said. "We were more disciplined at the plate today and just happened to put a few more runs on the board."

The Hawks were the home team in the game so, the Bluejays had first at bat even though it was on their home field.

Paul Johnson led off the game with a single and then quickly stole second base. After Colin Gilooly was sat down on strikes, Eric Rowling knocked a single to left field to score Johnson. Rowling was later brought home off of a single from Matt Medlock to give the Bluejays a 2-0 lead.

Kelly came right back in the bottom half of the first after Dustin LeGrand hit a single and was advanced to second after a balk was called. After Ryan Essner struck out, Ethan Lee hit a single to put runners on first and third with only one out.

Levi Felter then stepped up and hit a ball to the first baseman, Rowling, that scored LeGrand and moved Lee to second. Dustin Crowden then sent a double to center field that scored Lee from second base and made it a tie ball game at two.

The Bluejays put two more runs on the board in the top of the second after Craig Ervin hit one player and walked three consecutive batters to put one run across. Gilooly then hit a sacrifice fly to left field and scored a run to give Charleston a 4-2 lead.

In Kelly's half of the second LeGrand connected on a sacrifice fly to center field to score Bryce Faulkner which cut the Bluejays lead to only one.

The Bluejays failed to score anymore runs for the rest of the game and added only one more hit in the third inning. Both coaches contributed that to the pitching of Ervin.

"We got some outstanding pitching," Wills said. "He was a bulldog out there. He was rocky at first but, once he got settled in he was moving. He was around the plate and was mixing his pitches up well and he battled."

Ervin went six innings and allowed all four runs on four hits and four walks. Ervin also had seven strikeouts.

"Their kid on the mound threw a good ballgame," Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. "We had some opportunities to score a few more runs and he got out of it and didn't get hurt too bad. He settled down and did a real nice job on the mound. My hat's off to him."

Kelly took advantage of their pitcher's performance and sent two runs across in the third inning. Lee led off the third with a single and then stole second. Felter was next up to bat and sent a ground ball to third base that was miss played by Garrison Eastman. The error allowed Lee to score from second to tie the game.

Two batters later, Ross Lasater sent a ground ball to second base and was thrown out at first to make the second out. But, Lasater's hit was enough to send Felter home from third for Kelly's go-ahead run, 5-4.

Kelly scored two more in their half of the fourth on an error that scored Piland and a sacrifice from Essner that scored LeGrand for the second time.

The Bluejays did manage to put a couple runners on and threaten the Hawks lead in the top half of the seventh inning. Charleston had two runners on second and third with only one out.

Kelly made the move to put the ball into Essner's hand so he could try and close out the game. Essner delivered by striking out Zack Rowling for the second out and Matt Medlock to end the game.

"I thought up and down the line-up we put the ball in play," Wills said. "That's what you got to do to be aggressive and put runs on the board. Overall, we did what you have to do to win games. If we play those kind of games everyday, the 'W's' are going to out-number the 'L's'."

Lee and Crowden each went 2-3 for the Hawks. Lee's two hits were both singles and he ended up scoring both times he got on base. Crowden hit a single and a double and also had one RBI.

The Bluejays put together a total of four hits against the Hawks pitching. Johnson, E. Rowling, Medlock and Eastman accounted for their hits.

"We didn't play well enough to win," Minner said. "That's the bottom-line. They swung the bats well and put it in play and made us make some plays. There in a couple innings we didn't make a few plays and that put some pressure on us. They just played better than us. They deserve the win today."

Freshman James Naile picked up the loss for the Bluejays in his first varsity start. Naile threw 4 1/3 innings giving up five earned runs on six hits and one walk.

"I'm proud of the way he threw," Minner said. "He went out and battled and I felt like he threw good enough to win. I felt like we got a good performance out of him for his first varsity start. We going to build off of this and hopefully better things are to come."