The Austin VFW baseball team of 15- and 16-year-olds looks good this year.

Monday, June 11, 2001

The Austin VFW baseball team of 15- and 16-year-olds looks good this year.

Unfortunately, they are missing key hits and leaving runners stranded on base. They lost a doubleheader on Sunday, 6-5 and 7-1, against Northfield.

Game one began in the first inning with Mark Cavanagh grounding to first, which allowed Joey Kroc to run home from third. The bottom of the second Austin made two runs when Davis Lyons brought John Bastyr and Zach Stratton home from second and third. The top of the third is where Northfield started to get on the board. Mark Cavanagh was pitching for Austin. Northfield’s Bryan Levin made a base hit and stole second, Jeremy Wagner walked, and Travis Faust made a base hit, allowing Levin to make it home. The score was 3-1.

Then Wagner made it home on a base hit by Brandon Amy. Faust then made it home on a wild pitch. The third inning ended at a tie, 3-3. The bottom of the fourth, Austin’s Zach Stratton made it home on a wild pitch to TJ Parlin. Amy was pitching for Northfield and the score was 4-3.

The top of the fifth was a long inning where Austin kept Northfield from scoring with good defense until the end. Then on a wild pitch by Mark Cavanagh, Northfield’s Tim Tichich made it home. The score was tied again, 4-4.

The bottom of the fifth, Austin’s Nate Johnson made it home by stealing second and third and then making it home with a base hit by Mark Cavanagh. The score was 5-4.

This inning Austin had bases loaded twice and Northfield kept them from making runs with good defense.

The bottom of the fifth, Austin’s Nels Nelson was pitching. Northfield made two runs on base hits. The score was 6-5 and this was where it stayed. Cavanagh struck out two players and Nelson struck out 3 players.

Northfield coach Martin Lauer said: "We left a lot of runners on base. Our pitcher, Amy, pitched a heck of a game and had a nice RBI. We had some nice base hits."

Game two Austin scored in the first inning when Nelson shot a double on the first hit and Swank brought him home with a base hit.

Jason Senne, fifth-year coach for the Austin VFW team, said, "After we scored, their pitcher settled down and this slowed us down."

Northfield then made two runs in the fourth inning and the fifth inning is where they moved ahead even more.

Senne explained what happened in this inning: "We started out with an error with our shortstop, then they had single, a single and a walk. They got another single and another single and scored two runs."

Austin then tried to turn a double play and they missed with an underthrow to first. Northfield had a couple hits and the score was 6-1. Austin couldn’t score and Northfield made one more run in the sixth, leaving the game at 7-1.

Senne spoke of the doubleheader: "We were not able to drive in runs with bases loaded. We missed timely hits. We have sound defense and we made a few mental mistakes. We are struggling to hit the ball. We don’t have the quality pitchers as we have had in the past."

The three pitchers for the second game were Joey Kroc, Paul Leathers and Kevin Madsen. Kroc had three strikeouts. Austin was struckout six times by Northfield’s pitcher, Amy.

Senne is impressed with his players.

"This is the first time I have coached a group of kids who all seem to really get along," he said. "They are there for each other whether they are doing well or not. They all know each other; most of them were on the Austin freshman team."

The VFW next plays Glenville-Emmons Tuesday in Emmons.

Call Sheila Donnelly at 434-2214 or e-mail her at sports@austindailyherald.com.