There was plenty of frustration among the Albert Lea Colonels during Tuesday’s game with Minnesota Lake at Hayek Field.

The Colonels (4-16) in the midst of preparing for the playoffs, which begin Friday, played a sloppy game and stretched its pitching staff at the wrong time in a 9-4 loss to the Royals.

“They wanted it worse than we did,” said Albert Lea Colonels manager Bill Trygstad. “We didn’t play well.”

The Colonels committed six errors in the game, five of which came in the first five innings, and had to use three pitchers to close out the game.

Brandon Klukow got the start and only lasted two innings after his pitch count soared to 46 because of four errors committed in the first two innings.

Minnesota Lake scored just two runs off Klukow, all unearned runs, but Trygstad couldn’t send Klukow out for any more work with the prospect of needing his arm to be fresh for the postseason.

“We had a bunch of them and we had them early and they all cost us,” Trygstad said of the errors. “We gotta some how make the plays.”

Albert Lea was able to find a run in the second inning when Zac Oquist lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to score Nick Hagen, but the offense was held to just two hits until the seventh inning.

The Colonels scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to pull within three runs, but the Royals came back for two runs in the eighth with two outs.

Jared Gavle hit a two-run single up the middle in the seventh and Devin Kaasa scored on a wild pitch.

Albert Lea stranded eight runners in the game and failed to score a run from third with two outs in the sixth.

“We just got down and we didn’t come back,” Trygstad said. “I thought we might come back when we got those three runs, but we didn’t do anything the next two innings.”

The Colonels will face the Austin Greyhounds Wednesday in Austin before the playoffs begin Friday. Albert Lea will play Faribault, though the site hasn’t been determined yet.

Minnesota Lake 9, Albert Lea 4

Minnesota Lake 201 030 120 — 9 10 2

Albert Lea 010 000 300 — 4 7 6

WP — Brian Malakowsky 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

LP — Devin Kaasa 2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K