The Austin VFW survived a last-inning scare, pulling out the 8-5 win against Rochester Spartans in a kick-off game to the Spamtown Challenge Thursday night at Marcusen Park.

Nate Conner, the fifth pitcher Austin put on the mound, held off Rochester’s seventh-inning rally that saw the bases loaded, but Conner struck out Jared Campbell and got Chad Korte to ground out to end the threat.

Austin spread out its scoring with two in the second, one in the third and three in the fourth to take a 6-2 lead.They added two more in the sixth to pad their lead at 8-2 before Rochester scored three in the seventh to cut further into the lead before the threat was ended.

Jordan Hart was 2-for-4 with two RBIs while Dylan Gasner and Trevor Stevens were 2-for-3 with four runs scored between them.

Rochester      000 200 3 — 5

Austin             021 302 x — 8