When you consider the youth of their baseball team and the strength of the competition so far, it would be easy to say the Albert Lea Colonels are better than their win-loss record indicates.

Friday, June 22, 2001

When you consider the youth of their baseball team and the strength of the competition so far, it would be easy to say the Albert Lea Colonels are better than their win-loss record indicates.

That’s the message manager Bill Trygstad would like to convey.

&uot;We’re a young team, learning a lot, and we’ll get better,&uot; said Trygstad. &uot;It’s early yet. I hope the guys realize we have a lot of ball to play, and not give up because we haven’t won a game yet. It’ll come.&uot;

The Colonels showed more signs of coming to life Wednesday, hanging with powerful Mankato for four innings before falling 18-5 in a Southern Minny League game at Hayek Field. It left the locals 0-6 while Mankato improved to 6-2. Mankato, which was in the state tournament last year, has lost only to state power Rochester and a Twin Cities team.

The Colonels led 4-1 after two innings and trailed only 5-4 going into the fifth.

&uot;It was a good game for four innings,&uot; said Trygstad.

It got out of hand in the fifth, when the visitors put six unearned runs on the board.

The overall difference, according to Trygstad, was walks, untimely errors and a lack of offense – not necessarily in that order.

&uot;We walked eight batters, and we hit one, and we had errors at the wrong time,&uot; he said. &uot;You can’t give a good team extra outs.&uot;

The Colonels had four hits. Matt Felt doubled and drove in two runs, Brad Carlson singled in a run, Tim Davis doubled and Travis Simon singled. Derek Thorson drove in a run on a ground out.

Mike Piechowski started and pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Colonels, giving up nine runs; five of the runs were earned. Derek Anderson, Brad Carlson, Matt Trygstad and Craig Smith also pitched.

The Colonels host Waseca in a rescheduled game tonight at 7 at Hayek Field. They travel to Austin for a rescheduled 7:30 p.m. game Monday.

Mankato 18, Albert Lea 5

Mankato 014 061 6 – 18 14 4

Albert Lea 040 000 1 – 5 4 3

LP – Mike Piechowski