Austin Packers baseball team felled by Mankato West 19-4 Monday
The Austin Packers baseball team was looking for win number four in a row versus state-ranked and defending Section 2AAA champion Mankato West at Dick Seltz Field Monday, and the Packers saw an early 3-1 lead evaporate thanks to the Scarlets offense, which broke the game wide open with a 10-run top of the seventh in a 19-4 win.
Austin led 3-1 after three innings of play when West plated three runs in the top of the fourth to take a 4-3 lead. Unfortunatley for the Packers, it would be a lead the Scarlets would not relinquish as they added four in the fifth and one in the sixth to boost their lead to 9-3. Austin tallied a run in the bottom of the sixth to cut the West lead to 9-4, but the Scarlets then broke the game wide open with 10 coming across the plate in the top of the seventh to account for the 19-4 final.
Offensively for Austin, Dakota Retterath was 1 for 4 with a run scored, Isaac Osgood went 1 for 3 with an RBI, Isaac Stromlund was 1 for 1 with a run scored, Ethan Anderson picked up a hit in two trips to the plate with a run scored, Sam Oelfke was 1 for 3 with an RBI, and Isaiah Conway was 1 for 1. Five different pitchers took the mound in the game for the Packers, as Sam Oelfke went 1 1/3rds and gave up four runs, all earned, on four hits, with no strikeouts or walks, Brayden Bishop then went three innings for Austin and gave up three runs, two earned on two hits, striking out six and walking four, and Blake Cummings then took to the mound and went 1 2/3rds, giving up three runs, two earned, on two hits, striking out one and walking two. Kody Blom was then called on and went a third of an inning, giving up six runs, four earned, on three hits, striking out one and walking one, and Isaiah Conway then came in and went 2/3rds of an inning and gave up three runs, all earned on two hits, striking out one and walking two.
With the loss, Austin is now 3-4 overall on the season, and the Packers are right back into action today (Tuesday) in Mankato versus the East Cougars, with first pitch from Wolverton Field at 5:00 p.m.
