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The Austin Post 1216 VFW baseball team couldn’t wake up its bats as it lost to Champlin Park 3-0 in the opening round of the State Tournament in Marcusen Park Thursday morning.

Austin will play either Andover or Foley in an elimination game in Marcusen Park at approximately 6:30 p.m. tonight.

Austin loaded the bases by drawing three straight two out walks in the bottom of the sixth, but Dakota Retterath struck out to end the frame. Post 1216 had runners on first and third with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, but Champlin Park’s Carter Steffen registered three straight strikeouts to keep his shutout intact.

Steffen, who was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to put his team up 3-0 in the third, struck out a total of 12 hitters as he allowed just one hit.

“He had very medium (speed), but we just didn’t make contact on the ball,” Austin head coach Zach Huntley said. “It was as simple as that. We took too many pitches and we just didn’t put many balls in play.”

Peyton Ransom allowed two unearned runs in the top of the first inning after Post 1216 left a pop fly drop, but he kept Austin in the game the rest of the way as he scattered six hits and five walks, while striking out seven in five innings.

Blake Cummings escaped a bases loaded jam in the top of the sixth when he struck out back to back hitters to keep Austin within 3-0.
“The encouraging part of it is that we stayed in it the whole time, now we’ll see how we handle adversity tonight as we try to keep our season going,” Huntley said.

CP 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 3 7 2
Austin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 1 1

Austin pitching: Peyton Ransom, 5 IP, 6 H, 5 BB, 3 R, 1 ER, 7 K, 2 HBP; Blake Cummings, 2 IP, 1 H, 4 BB, 0 R, 3 K

Austin hitting: Landon Meyer, 0-for-1, 2 BBs, HBP; Sam Oelfke, 0-for-2, BB, HBP; Dakota Retterath, 1-for-4; Peyton Ransom, 0-for-3; Ethan Anderson, 0-for-2, BB; Isaac Nelson, 0-for-2; Dane Schara, 0-for-3; Cooper Napton, 0-for-2; Isaac Osgood, 0-for-2, BB; River Graff, 0-for-1; Blake Cummings, 0-for-1