Colonels score comeback win against Austin
Published 12:57 pm Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Albert Lea Colonels (2-3) put on a tremendous show Friday night at Hayek Field in Albert Lea when they downed the Austin Athletics 7-6.
The Colonels, and in particular their pitching staff, got a huge boost from starting pitcher Michael Greibrok who went the distance in picking up Albert Lea’s second win of the season.
“Mike wanted to go the distance,” said Colonels manager Bill Trygstad. “Through two innings it didn’t look like he had his best stuff, but the last seven innings were just outstanding.”
With the game still scoreless heading to the top of the second the A’s looked like they could run away with the game when they sent 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs on five solid hits.
Albert Lea battled back in the second and third with three hits of its own and thanks to three Austin errors was able to push two runs across the plate and pull to within three at 5-2.
Greibrok was on his game though and allowed just five hits and one run the rest of the way.
Trailing 6-2 after four innings it was all up to the offense to come through if the Colonels were going to win.
Albert Lea got three of those runs back in the bottom of the fifth when right fielder Andrew Behnke laid down a perfect bunt for an infield hit. Behnke advanced to second on a passed ball then came around to score on a Nick Hagen single. Behnke led the Colonels offensive attack with a 3-for-4 night at the plate and also scored two runs, including the go-ahead and eventual winning run.
Hagen and Anthony Lowman scored before the inning was over and with three runs in the fifth frame the Colonels trailed 6-5.
Heading to the bottom of the eighth Albert Lea had eight hits but not many had come at the right time. The Colonels left the bases loaded three times in the game and stranded a total of 14 runners.
That all changed in the eighth when Ryan Wangen smoked a one-out double that put the tying run on second. Behnke then reached base on an error, the seventh of the game for the A’s, stole second, and Albert Lea had the winning run in scoring position.
With two outs and the bases loaded Jake Villarreal drew a walk to even the score at 6-6. That’s when the A’s had seen enough of their starter and made the switch hoping to push the game to extra innings.
Joel Eisenbraun was the first Colonel batter to face the A’s reliever and on just the second pitch took a high heater to the back which brought Behnke home from third with the winning run.
“Tonight we played well,” Trygstad said. “We were able to make some outstanding plays on defense and that was the difference for us.”
After playing the Wells Wildcats Saturday the Colonels will be back in action tonight when they travel to Austin to take on the River Dawgs at historic Marcussen Park. Game time is 6 p.m.
Albert Lea 7, Austin 6
Austin – 050 100 000 – 6 12 7
Albert Lea – 011 030 02x – 7 9 2
WP – Michael Greibrok 9 IP, 6 runs, 12 hits, 8 K, 2 BB
LP – Kasey Kreckling 7 2/3 IP, 7 runs, 9 hits, 4 K, 5 BB