Albert Lea’s quest for a second consecutive berth in the VFW state tournament was derailed Sunday by the No. 1 seeded Austin squad at Marcusen Park as No. 1 showed why it was worthy of the ranking in a 5-2 win over second seeded Albert Lea in the district championship game.

The two teams met for the third time this season and Austin (13-2) had come out victorious in each previous game, including Saturday’s 4-2 win that handed Post 447 just its fourth loss in district play.

Alan May, who stifled Albert Lea (20-8, 12-4) Saturday on the mound, continued to haunt Post 447, this time with his bat in the first inning. May connected for a shot over the 344 foot sign in left center field in the first inning to give Austin an early 1-0 lead. May delivered again in the third inning with a booming double to left field that caromed off the fence to start a three-run inning.

A costly error in the third allowed two runs to score and a batter later Logan Spitzack added an RBI single to give Austin a 4-1 lead.

Cole Sorenson scored the only Albert Lea runs of the game. In the second inning he scored on a Carter Kortan single and in the fourth he came around to score on an Austin error.

Post 447 had two chances later in the game to score but came up empty handed both times. In the fifth inning Dalton Westerlund reached third with two outs but Austin’s starter Spitzack came up with a strikeout to retire the side.

One inning later Aaron Klatt led off with a double down the first base line and Josh Eisenbraun reached base when Spitzack hit him. Klatt moved to third and Eisenbraun to second on a wild pitch with one away, but Spitzack got Cody Haaland to pop up to first for the second out. Then May flashed his arm once again on a ball hit deep in the hole at short by Kortan and came up firing to end the inning. May also started a double play in the third and was part of six putouts.

Albert Lea needed nine innings against Owatonna just to reach the championship in the first game of the day.

Post 447 let a 5-3 lead turn into a 6-5 deficit before tying the game in the fifth on Connor Kortan’s sacrifice fly to score Westerlund.

Klatt, who worked Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Rochester Spartans, came on in extra innings and worked out of two jams immediately.

Owatonna’s Nate Zimmerman ripped a base hit down the first base line in the eighth inning, stole second and advanced to third on a groundout. But with two away Klatt reached back and struck out Matt Simon, the No. 3 hitter, to end the threat.

In the top of the ninth Mike Sebring led off with a walk and reached third on a single by Nate Hager to put Albert Lea on the ropes again. Klatt used whatever he had left in the tank to strike out Travis Olson and J.T. Bellrichard made a play deep in the hole at second to retire Jordan Zeman to end the inning.

Owatonna brought in Sam Zappa to face Post 447 in the ninth, but Zappa struggled to find the zone in his one inning of work.

Zappa issued a lead off walk to Westerlund with one away. Westerlund reached second after a sacrifice bunt by Cory Hansen and Owatonna intentionally walked Connor Kortan with first base open. The next eight pitches Zappa threw missed the zone as Bellrichard drew a walk and Klatt drove in the game-winning run with a bases-loaded walk.

Austin 5, Albert Lea 2

Albert Lea 010 100 0 — 2 6 1

Austin 103 001 x — 5 8 1

WP — Logan Spitzack 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

LP — Cody Haaland 2 1/3 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Albert Lea 7, Owatonna 6

Owatonna 120 030 000 — 6 10 3

Albert Lea 005 010 001 — 7 10 3

WP — Aaron Klatt 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

LP — Sam Zappa 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 0 K