Austin Packers baseball team blanks Winona 10-0 in five innings Tuesday

After falling to unbeaten Stewartville by a score of 9-4 Monday, the Austin Packers baseball team was looking to get back on the winning track Tuesday as they played host to Big 9 Conference and Section 1AAA rival Winona at Dick Seltz Field, and a nine-run bottom half of the third inning keyed a 10-0, five-inning win for the Packers.

Austin led 1-0 after two innings of play when Ethan Anderson led off the bottom of the third with a single.  Pitcher Peyton Ransom then belted a double to put runners at second and third, and Dakota Retterath then followed with a two-run single to put Austin in front, 3-0.  Haydn Quitmeyer then kept the hit parade going with a double, Isaiah Conway then followed with an RBI single to make the score 4-0, and Gage Helgeson then plated two more runs with a single to give the Packers a 6-0 lead.  After a sacrifice bunt from Casey Denzer, Isaac Osgood then brought in Helgeson with an RBI single to make the score 7-0, and when Anderson came back to the plate, Austin had batted around.  He was hit by a pitch, Ransom then brought Osgood in with an RBI single to make the score 8-0, and Retterath then capped off the massive inning by belting a two-run double to give the Packers a 10-0 lead.  The 10 runs were far more than Ransom would need on the mound, as the he fired a two-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and three walks in five innings pitched to help seal the win.

Ransom, Retterath, and Conway all went 3 for 3 and drove in a total of seven out of the Packers’ 10 runs on the night, while Ethan Anderson wound up 1 for 2 with a run scored, and Isaac Osgood went 1 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored,

With the win, the Packers are now 5-5 overall on the season, and the club is back in action in Albert Lea Thursday versus the Tigers, with first pitch scheduled for 5:00 p.m.