Austin Packers baseball falls to Mankato East 7-4 Tuesday

The Austin Packers baseball team traveled to Wolverton Field in Mankato Tuesday for a Big 9 Conference tilt with the Mankato East Cougars, and five unearned runs stemming from two key Packers errors, plus nine walks from Austin’s pitching staff led to a 7-4 Cougars win.

As they did the previous day versus Mankato West, the Packers jumped out to an early lead with two in the top of the first for a 2-0 lead, but East countered with five runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to take a 5-2 lead.  Austin answered with two runs in the top of the second to trim the Cougar lead to 5-4, but East pitchers Owen Studtmann and Brayden Borgmeier, along with the Cougar defense shut the door on the Packers offensively from there, and East scored a single run in the bottom of the 2nd and another in the sixth inning to account for the 7-4 final.

Offensively for Austin, Nick Robertson went 1 for 3 with a double, an RBI and a run scored, Peyton Ransom was 1 for 3 with an RBI, Isaac Stromlund registered one hit in four trips to the plate with a run scored, and Ethan Anderson and Sam Winkels each added hits as well.

Peyton Ransom got the start on the mound for the Packers and gave up six runs, one earned, on four hits in four innings of work, striking out four and walking seven, and Sam Oelfke pitched the last two innings and gave up one run, which was earned, on one hit, striking out one and walking two.

With the loss, Austin is now 3-5 on the sesason, and the Packers are back on the road for their next game in Rochester Thursday versus the John Marshall Rockets, with first pitch from John Adams Middle School at 5:00 p.m.