Austin Packers baseball team earns first win of the season 7-6 over Kasson-Mantorville Friday

The Austin Packers baseball team was looking for win number one in adverse weather conditions in Kasson Friday versus the Komets of Kasson-Mantorville, and with both teams battling through high winds and periodic snow showers, it was the Packers taking an early lead in a back-and-forth contest to eventually win 7-6.

Austin took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, but it was Kasson-Mantorville answering with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning to knot the game at 2-2.  The Packers inreased their lead to 4-2 with two more runs in the top of the fourth, but the Komets again answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 4-3.  Kasson-Mantorville then knotted the game at 4 with a single run in the bottom of the fifth, but Austin then tallied what turned out to be the game-winning runs in the top of the sixth as they plated three for a 7-4 lead, and they then held off a two-run Komet rally in the bottom of the seventh to earn the win.

The Packers were led offensively by Dakota Retterath, who went 2 for 4 with two doubles and a run scored, Peyton Ransom was 1 for 4 with a double and two RBI’s, Nick Robertson was 1 for 3 with a run scored, Isaac Osgood and Isaac Stromlund were both 1 for 3, with Osgood knocking in a run and Stromlund scoring a run, and Ethan Anderson tallied an RBI and scored two runs in the victory.

Austin used three pitchers in Friday’s game with Sam Oelfke going 1/3rd of an inning and giving up no runs on no hits and walking the only batter he faced,  Brayden Bishop then came in and pitched four innings, giving up four runs, two earned, on five hits, fanning seven and walking four, and Blake Cummings was credited with the win as he pitched the last 2 2/3rds of an inning and gave up two runs, neither earned, on three hits, striking out one and walking one.  Austin wound up with seven runs, six hits and two errors, while Kasson-Mantorville finished with six runs, eight hits and four errors.

With the win, Austin is now 1-3 on the season, and the Packers are scheduled to return to action at Northfield on Tuesday in a Big 9 Conference matchup, with first pitch scheduled for 5:00 p.m.