There were two things Albert Lea VFW baseball coach Matt Trygstad wanted to improve in Wednesday’s game against the Rochester Spartans.

“We wanted to keep our walks down, and improve our defense,” said Trygstad.

Post 447 did both. Three pitchers combined for no walks and Albert Lea had no fielding miscues.

But Rochester did one thing better.

“They basically hit everything we threw,” said Trygstad.

The Spartans collected 15 hits &045; six for extra bases &045; as Albert Lea absorbed a 13-3 five-inning loss at Hayek Field.

“They’re easily the best team we’ve played so far this year, hands down,” said Trygstad. “I guess, if I had to pick a favorite out of all the teams we’ve played, it would be them.”

The Spartans, representing the Mayo school district, had a home run, a triple and four doubles. The home run was by their No. 8 hitter.

“One-through-nine, all their guys can hit,” said Trygstad. “That’s something we haven’t run into this year.”

Rochester took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the locals answered with a pair in the bottom. Brock Sorenson and Ryan Truesdell hit back-to-back, one-out doubles, and Brandon Klukow plated Truesdell with a single.

Albert Lea’s other run came in the fourth, when an unusual double play ended a potentially big inning for Post 447.

Klukow hit a leadoff double and Donald Graves singled, advancing Klukow to third. Travis Klatt was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Kris Pleiss hit a grounder to the shortstop, who got the force out at second, but the throw to first was high and Pleiss was safe. Graves, still running on the play, was thrown out at the plate. A strikeout ended the inning.

Klukow was 2-for-2 and Sorenson was 2-for-3. The other Albert Lea hits were by Truesdell, Graves and Pleiss.

Sorenson started on the mound and went three-plus innings, giving up 10 runs on 10 hits, with no walks and three strikeouts. Nine runs were earned. Jarrod Stadheim allowed four runs in one inning, and Graves pitched an inning of one-hit, no-run relief.

The loss dropped Albert Lea’s record to 2-3 in the Western Division and 4-7 overall.

The weekend schedule was still tentative Wednesday night because of the Gus Macker basketball tournament in Albert Lea. The VFW team is scheduled to play doubleheaders at 11 a.m. both days, Saturday at Austin and Sunday at home against the Rochester Knights. Trygstad hopes to reschedule Saturday’s games for another date and move Sunday’s starting time to 4 p.m.

Rochester 13, Albert Lea 3

RS

411

61 – 13

15

0

AL

200

10 –

3

7

1

LP – Brock Sorenson