Walks, errors and hard-hit balls that didn’t find holes combined to cost the Worthington American Legion baseball team as it lost 10-0 to the Mankato Americans squad in a Wednesday night first-round game in the substate tournament at New Ulm’s Mueller Park.
Worthington, which had the No. 8 seed in the eight-team tournament, got just one hit on the evening, but Post 5 pitchers surrendered only four hits in all. The top-seeded Mankato Americans got one run in the first inning, three in the second, one in the third and three in the fourth before capping the contest by scoring three times in the bottom of the fifth.
Max Ostrem got the start on the mound for Worthington and allowed just two hits but issued eight walks and five earned runs. Logan Kerkaert hurled the final inning for Post 5; two of the three runs he gave up were unearned.
Worthington coach Austin Nunez said afterward that, in his opinion, Wednesday night’s opponent wasn’t 10 runs better than his squad despite the final score. Without the walks and errors – there were four in all – the game would have been much more competitive, he added.
Chase Byrne had the lone hit for Post 5, which is now 5-9 on the season. The team will continue play in the double-elimination substate tournament today and was scheduled to play fifth-seeded New Ulm – which lost to New Prague 8-1 on Wednesday -- at 10:30 a.m. at Johnson Park. If Worthington is victorious, it would play another game at 5 p.m. today at Mueller Park. A loss ends Post 5’s season.
In other action at the substate tournament on Wednesday, the second-seeded Mankato Nationals topped No. 7 Northfield 14-3 and sixth-seeded Waseca beat No. 3 Marshall 6-2. Marshall plays Northfield at 11:30 a.m. today at Mueller Park in a loser-out matchup.
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