NORTHFIELD &045; Josh Diaz pitched well enough to win, and the offense produced plenty of runs for the Albert Lea High School baseball team.

It was the defense that faltered.

The Tigers had three errors that led to three unearned runs in a 6-5 nonconference loss at Northfield Monday.

&uot;It was a game where we played real hard,&uot; said coach Joe Sczublewski. &uot;If we had just capitalized on a few of our opportunities and made the plays, it could have been different &045; but that’s the name of the game. We showed some improvement.&uot;

The loss dropped the Tigers’ record to 0-4. They’re 0-2 in the Big Nine.

Run-scoring singles by Ben Meillier and Ryan Truesdell helped propel the Tigers to a 4-0 first-inning lead Monday, but the Raiders answered with one in the second and tied it with three in the third.

Trailing 5-4, the Tigers were down to their last at-bat when Nate Loberg walked with two outs in the top of the seventh. After David Villarreal walked, Brandon Klukow delivered a single to score Loberg and tie it.

Northfield’s clean-up hitter, Fran Healy, led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run.

Loberg was 2-for-3 for the day. Truesdell, Meillier, Derek Goodnature, Klukow and Villarreal had one hit each.

Diaz pitched a complete game, giving up three earned runs on eight hits, with two walks and one strikeout.

&uot;Diaz pitched a strong game for us,&uot; said Sczublewski. &uot;He only walked a couple batters. He deserved to be the winning pitcher in that ballgame.&uot;

The Tigers return to Big Nine play today at Winona.

Northfield 6, Albert Lea 5

AL

400

000

1 &045; 5

7

3

NF

013

010

1 &045; 6

8

3

LP &045; Josh Diaz