Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Austin baseball team found its swing a little too late as it lost to Kasson-Mantorville 7-3 in Seltz Field Monday.

The Packers (2-5 overall) put together a late surge as Dakota Retterath hit a two-out, two-run single to left field to bring Austin within 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth. The KoMets (4-2 overall) added two runs in the top of the seventh before Gage Helgeson drove in a run for Austin in the final frame.

Austin head coach Jacob Nelson said he’s hoping his team can get back to playing loose and free in the future.

“The core of our team is seniors and they’ve been playing together for a long time. They need to bring the energy a little bit more,” Nelson said. “When they’re having fun, playing ball and joking around, that’s when we play our best ball. Baseball’s supposed to be fun and we’ve kind of gotten away from that in our last couple of games. We’ve just been in our heads a little bit too much, but we’ll bounce back.”

Austin nearly got on the board in the top of the fifth, but Helgeson had a two-out  line drive taken away by KM’s Benjamin Larson, who made a diving catch in left field. Austin stranded runners on first and third in the fifth.

The Packers had just one hit in the first four innings.

“(Their pitcher) was throwing a lot of early strikes and we were trying to tell the guys to jump on the first or second pitch,” Nelson said. “We just made adjustments a little too late. Once we started to hit him, we started to see good things.”

KM 102  200  2  –  7  9  0

Austin 000  002  1  –  3  7  2

Austin pitching: Isaac Osgood (L) 4 ⅓ IP, 5 H, 4 BB, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 K; Jonah Klein, 2 ⅔ IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 2 K

Austin hitting: Osgood, 0-for-2, R, BB; Noah Dunlap, 0-for-2; Peyton Ransom, 1-for-3, R; Dakota Retterath, 1-for-3, 2 RBIs; Ethan Anderson, 1-for-3; Haydn Quitmeyer, 2-for-3, double, R; Benton Purkapile, 1-for-3; Gage Helgeson, 1-for-3, RBI; Isaiah Conway, 0-for-3; Klein, 0-for-1