Offense deserts Colonels at playoff time

Published 1:51 pm Saturday, July 26, 2008

The season came to an abrupt end Thursday for the Albert Lea Colonels in the Class C Southern Minny League playoffs.

The Colonels (8-13) went scoreless over 16 innings in two losses in Owatonna as Albert Lea suffered a 3-0 loss to Austin and a 10-0 loss to Owatonna in a seven-inning game.

It was a drastic change for an offense that had put up 19 runs and 17 runs in games during the regular season.

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“The last four games we didn’t get very many hits,” said Albert Lea manager Bill Trygstad. “For some reason our hitting kind of slowed down and I don’t know what that was.”

The Colonels became embroiled in a pitchers’ duel against the Athletics. Brandon Klukow got the ball for Albert Lea and threw six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and striking out four in the hard-luck loss.

The Colonels offense did little to give Klukow some run support and only had three hits in the game.

“It was pretty much a pitchers’ duel,” said Albert Lea first baseman Ryan Wangen. “Brandon Klukow pitched a solid game and (Austin starter Kasey Krekling) he just pitched a solid game. He did what he was good at and we just didn’t hit him.”

Against Owatonna the Colonels had an even tougher time as they faced Divison-I North Dakota State bound starter Josh Smith.

Smith struck out 11 and allowed just one hit in seven innings of work.

Albert Lea committed seven errors in the field as well, ruining an otherwise solid start by Michael Greibrok. Greibrok threw four innings and allowed seven hits. The Aces scored seven runs off of him, but only one run was earned. Greibrok also struck out six and walked two.

Despite the two losses, Trygstad thought the team had improved from last year.

“If they get another year or two, they are going to get better,” Trygstad said. “Experience is the key when you go against older guys. If we can keep them together and get them to work on their game there’s no reason we can’t get better.”

Austin 3, Albert Lea 0

Albert Lea – 000 000 000 – 0 3 1

Austin – 000 020 100 – 3 8 0

LP – Brandon Klukow 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

Owatonna 10, Albert Lea 0

Albert Lea – 000 000 000- 0 1 7

Owatonna – 200 530 000 – 10 9 0

LP – Michael Greibrok 4 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 1 ER , 2 BB, 6 K