Austin Packers baseball falls to New Prague in regular-season finale 5-3

The Austin Packers baseball team wound up the regular season in New Prague Tuesday for a non-conference game versus the Trojans that had been postponed from earlier in the season, and it was the Trojans jumping out to an early 3-0 lead on their way to a 5-3 win.

New Prague used two walks, a hit and an error in the bottom of the first to take the 3-0 lead, but the Packers responded in the top of the second with Dakota Retterath led off the inning with a single and eventually scored on a RBI single from Jared Lillemon to cut the Trojan lead to 3-1.  Austin scored again in the top of the third when three singles, the last of which by Retterath scored R.J. Wieseler cut the New Prague lead to 3-2, and Nick Robertson, who had also singled in the inning later scored on a walk and a wild pitch to tie the game at 3.  The Trojans, though, came back with what turned out to be the winning run in the bottom half of the inning to take a 4-3 lead, and they added another run in the fourth with two hits and a hit batsman for the 5-3 final.

Dakota Retterath helped to lead Austin offensively by going 2 for 3 with a RBI and a run scored, Jared Lillemon wound up going a perfect 2 for 2 with a run knocked in and Bryce Fischer and Nick Robertson also each picked up a hit in the game for the Packers.  Head Coach Jacob Nelson lauded the performance of Blake Cumming, who was called on to make his first varsity start Tuesday evening, and he pitched five innings, giving up the five New Prague runs, two earned, on six hits, striking out three and walking four.  Jared Lillemon came on and pitched a scoreless inning of relief in the sixth.

With the loss, Austin winds up the regular season with a record of 4-16, and they will be on the road for the opening round of the Section 1AAA baseball tournament on Saturday against an opponent yet to be determined.