Andy Ryan was admittedly nervous when he took the mound Tuesday night in Austin’s opening round American Legion District 1 Tournament baseball game.

Wednesday, July 26, 2000

Andy Ryan was admittedly nervous when he took the mound Tuesday night in Austin’s opening round American Legion District 1 Tournament baseball game.

Ryan fell behind in the count to the first three Albert Lea batters he faced and walked two of them.

"I struggled a little and didn’t have much control of my pitches," Ryan said. "I was nervous at the start, but I knew we could beat them if I settled down."

Ryan worked his way out of the first inning jam and several other tight spots during his 4 1/3 innings of pitching as Austin earned a 4-1 victory over visiting Albert Lea at Marcusen Park. He allowed one run on three hits, while striking out two batters.

"Andy’s not a real ‘rah-rah’ type of guy," Austin coach Mike Raso said. "He does what he has to do. His control (Tuesday) was nowhere near what it has been, but he gave us four innings and kept us in it."

Ryan’s biggest contribution Tuesday, however, came with a bat in his hands.

After surrendering Albert Lea’s only run in the top half of the third inning, Ryan cracked a game-tying double off of Albert Lea starter Isaac Walton to the right center field fence in the bottom half of the inning.

"I was looking for a fastball, and (Walton) threw me one down and I got a good swing on it," Ryan said. "I was waiting for a strike to hit hard."

Ryan scored the game-winning run three batters later on a sacrifice ground out by Nick Rohne.

Austin closed out the scoring with two insurance runs in sixth. Jamie Morrison scored from first on a Syd Schramm double down the left field line and Schramm scored two batters later on catcher Josh Kunze’s double.

Walton, a hard-throwing left hander, had lost to Austin twice this summer heading into Tuesday’s game, once during the high school season, and once in a 1-0, nine-inning Legion game. Walton pitched a complete game Tuesday, allowing five hits and walking two while taking the loss.

"I felt really good out there," Walton said, "it was one of my better pitching days. They’d seen me before and I just threw a couple pitches they wanted and they hit them hard."

Rohne relieved Ryan in the top of the fifth and helped Austin out of its toughest jam of the night. Albert Lea loaded the bases with one out on an Adam Hanson single and walks to Dave Dahl and Al Attig.

Rohne got Lowman to strike out swinging for the second out of the inning. He then caught Hanson taking a big lead off of third base and picked him off to end the Albert Lea threat.

"That’s the kind of ball we’ve been playing all year," Raso said. "We told the kids to stay focused because we knew a couple of runs would probably win the game."

The win puts Austin (24-13) into the winner’s bracket of the tournament, which shifts solely to Marcusen beginning Thursday and continuing through Sunday, if necessary.

Loser-out games are at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday, while championship bracket games will be played at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Austin plays the 8 p.m. game, likely against the Rochester A’s, who played Waseca in a first round game Tuesday.