Charleston's Mark Freed slides into second on a force play in the third inning Monday evening at Hillhouse Park in Charleston. The Squirrels lost to Mayfield 9-5 in a rain-shortened contest. (David Jenkins/Standard-Democrat)

CHARLESTON -- It was a game that was cut short by weather in the middle of the sixth inning on Monday night, but Mayfield received the win over the Charleston Fighting Squirrels 9-5 in Senior Babe Ruth action.

"We've had some time off and now we're finally getting back at it," Squirrels coach Michael Minner said. "We're starting to show a little sign of life. We're starting to do some things offensively. I felt like we competed."

Charleston's Collin Gilooly delivers a pitch to a Mayfield, Ky., batter Monday evening. Gilooly came into the game in the bottom of the third inning. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

Mayfield started the scoring in the top of the second inning pushing two across the plate to take a 2-0 lead. In the top of the third, the Squirrels starting pitcher, Eric Rowling, seemed to have trouble finding the strike zone. After giving up a leadoff double to start the inning, he walked three consecutive batters to send a run in and keep the bases loaded.

"He struggled tonight," Minner said about Rowling. "It wasn't like he got hit hard; he just didn't throw strikes.

After three runs had scored and the bases were loaded again, Minner decided to put Colin Gilooly on the mound in relief. Gilooly prevented another run from scoring to get the final out by a ground out to first base. Mayfield had taken a 5-0 lead.

The Squirrels answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third. Gilooly sent a double down the left field foul line, and Blake Gaddis hit a single to the left side as well to set up Zack Rowland with two men on and only one out. Rowland also hit a ball to left field that was misplayed by the left fielder. That allowed Gilooly and Gaddis to score and make it a 5-2 game.

The Squirrels scored two more runs in the fourth inning when Gilooly and Gaddis both drove in one run apiece to make it a one run ball game. But, Mayfield answered back with three runs in the top of inning number five with three base hits and a walk to take an 8-4 lead.

Charleston put just one more run across in their half of the fifth when Mark Freed scored on a fielders choice ground out from Rowling.

The Squirrels started the sixth inning with Matt Medlock on the hill. Medlock faced three batters before the rain put a halt on the game and allowed one run to make it a final 9-5 loss for the Squirrels.

"We had some guys out there that really don't pitch that much," Minner said referring to Gilooly and Medlock. "Eric is one of our pitchers. Colin (Gilooly) came in and did a good job and so did Matt (Medlock). They kept us in the ball game and I feel like we had a shot to win at the end. If we would have continued to play, we feel like we would have had a shot. That s all you can ask for."

Despite the loss, Minner and the Squirrels feel like they have another agenda when it comes to this season. No doubt they will work hard and try to win Minner said, but their sights are on the postseason. '

"All in all, we're going to continue to play," Minner said. "We're playing for the postseason. We know we're already there."

"We're going to play a lot of games and we're going to try a lot of people at a lot of different spots," Minner added. "It's going to be a grinding summer. We have 53 games scheduled and we're going to play and see what we're made of."

The Squirrels will be right back in action tonight when they host Jackson at Hillhouse Park at 6 p.m.