Austin 17U baseball team splits season-opening doubleheader with Rochester Mayo

The Austin 17U baseball team kicked off its Southern Minny League season at Marcusen Park Sunday with a doubleheader against Rochester Mayo, and Austin split the two games, winning 13-1 in five innings in Game 1 and falling 21-4 in five innings in Game 2.

In the first game, Austin sent seven men to the plate in the bottom of the first and scored three runs, thanks to a double by Lathan Wilson, an RBI single by Dusty Copley, a balk and two RBI groundouts from Logan Murphy and Mac Nelson.  After Mayo scored their only run of the game in the top of the second, Austin came right back with two of its own in the bottom half of the inning after Blake Smith plated Nelson with a RBI triple, and he then scored on a RBI single off the bat of Bray Karsjens.  Austin put the game out of reach with a four-run bottom of the third and four more  in the fourth, the big hit being a 2 RBI single of the bat of Zander Christianson.

Austin totaled nine hits as a team, and Copley picked up the win on the mound as he pitched three innings and gave up the lone Mayo run on two hits.

In Game 2 of the twin bill, Mayo sent 10 men to the plate in the top of the first and scored all the runs they would need in a 21-4, 5 inning win.

Mayo scored five runs with four hits to start the game, and after a scoreless second blew the game open  with nine in the third for a 14-0 lead.  Austin game back with three in their half of the inning on a RBI single from Blake Klingfus and two unearned runs scoring on an error, but Rochester added seven more runs in the top of the fifth with the benefit of only one hit, thanks in large part to two Austin errors, and also to several walks and wild pitches.

Austin is 1-1 on the young season, and the squad is back in action in Red Wing on Tuesday at 5 p.m.