Charleston pitcher James Miller delivers a pitch Thursday night to a Calvert City hitter. Looking on is Charleston first baseman Mark Freed (far right) and Calvert City baserunner Cody Forsythe. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat)

CHARLESTON -- The Charleston Fighting Squirrels came up empty on Thursday evening against Calvert City Post 236, falling 10-3 in seven innings.

It took Post 236 an inning to get things going, but in the top of the second they capitalized off of two errors to plate five runs to go ahead 5-0.

Charleston shortstop Blake Gaddis goes to backhand the ball in the second inning Thursday night against Calvert City. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

The score would stand until the fourth inning when Charleston jumped on the board after two consecutive errors by Calvert City. Tyler Whybark drove in a run with a single down the left field line to put the score 5-1.

Post 236 answered with a run of their own in the top of the fifth when Sam Toby drove a double to the wall bringing in Tyler O'Daniels who had singled to begin the inning.

Fighting Squirrels catcher Kaleb Williford tripled to right center field to begin the bottom of the fifth and Colin Gilooly brought him home with a sacrifice fly to center field but two runners were left stranded to conclude the inning.

The score was 6-2 after five innings.

Calvert City tacked on one in the sixth and three in the seventh to reach double digits, but Charleston could only come up with one as they fell 10-3 to Post 236.

The Fighting Squirrels had three costly errors in the contest and head coach Michael Minner attributed the loss to the miscues in the field.

"What can you say when you're missing pop flies at this level you can't expect to win," said Minner. "We dug ourselves a hole, and unfortunately when you're playing really good teams you're not going to dig yourself out of the hole. I thought (James) Miller threw the ball real well and battled though."

Miller took the loss after lasting six innings. He gave up five earned runs on eight hits and two free passes. He also struck out four in the defeat.

"We kicked it around (on defense)," said Minner. "That's unacceptable if you want to win. Offensively, we didn't do much either, so it wasn't a good game all around."

At the dish, the Fighting Squirrels were led by Blake Gaddis and Whybark, who were each 2-for-3 with two singles. Gaddis also walked and stole a base while Whybark picked up an RBI.

Post 236 had three big hitters on the evening, O'Daniels, Toby and Chad Hardin. O'Daniels was 3-for-4 with a single, two triples, two runs scored and an RBI, Toby was 2-for-4 with a single, a double and a run scored and Hardin was 2-for-3 with a single, a triple, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI.

"We played pretty good," said Calvert City head coach Justin Hodge. "We executed when we needed to and we had a good performance on the mound. Hitting-wise, we left a couple of runners on but we executed and scored when we needed to."

The good performance on the mound came from starting pitcher Cody Forsythe, who threw five solid innings, giving up one earned run on five hits and one walk while striking out nine.

Charleston will have the weekend off and will be on the diamond again on Monday evening against New Madrid.