By Micah Bader

Albert Lea Tribune

ALBERT LEA — The Austin/Albert Lea Legion baseball team saw its greenhorn bullpen thrive Wednesday in a 12-5 win over New Richland.

Tyler Pirsig led Albert Lea/Austin to the win by pitching the first four innings and only allowing one hit.

“You can definitely throw strikes when you’ve got our defense backing you up,” Pirsig said. “Just put it over the plate, and they can hit it to anybody on the field and it is almost an assured out.”

Alec Pepper pitched the final three innings in relief. He allowed two hits and one walk.

Co-head coach Jay Enderson said both hurlers earned necessary experience.

“Both of them have never pitched over the JV level,” he said. “We just thought it was a good chance for them to play.”

New Richland’s coach did not attend the game, so players took the first- and third-base coach positions.

New Richland held its first and only lead of the game in the top of the first inning. AAL (2-3 overall) fought back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Tommy Olmsted hit a lead-off single, stole second and moved to third on a single by Johnathan Fleek. Dylan See-Rockers drove in Olmsted and Fleek with a base hit. See-Rockers later scored on a single by Chris Enderson with an error to give Albert Lea/Austin a 3-1 lead.

While Pirsig held New Richland scoreless in the second and third innings, AAL began piling on runs. A grounder with some steam was hit by Gabe Kasak to score Sean Coffey in the second, and AAL added three more runs in the bottom of the third to take a 7-1 lead.

New Richland managed to score two runs in the fourth inning, but AAL took the momentum back with an in-the-park home run by Kasak.

AAL extended its advantage to eight runs in the sixth en route to its 12-5 win. AAL finished the game with a double play on a grounder to Fleek.

“The defense is getting more solid each night,” Enderson said. “We had a couple glitches here and there, but it’s with kids playing where they don’t play or haven’t played much.

“The biggest thing is we’re staring to know our players now.”

Olmsted led AAL at the plate. he went two-for-three, scored two runs, drove in two runs, walked once and stole two bases. See-Rockers also had a pair of RBIs stolen bases and runs scored.

“Our team has a lot of good hitters,” See-Rockers said. “Everyone is doing their jobs, and we’re getting big hits, too. That always helps.”

Johnathan Fleek was hit by a pitch three times. He scored two runs.

NR 1 0 0 2 1 0 1 — 5

AAL 3 1 3 1 0 4 X — 12

AAL pitching: Tyler Pirsig (W) 4 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 3 K; Alec Pepper, 3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB

AAL hitting: Tommy Olmstead 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBIs, 1 BB, 2 SB; Johnathan Fleek 1-for-2, 2 R, 3 HBP; Gabe Kasak 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI; Dylan See-Rockers 1-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBIs, 2 SB; Chris Enderson 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 RBI; Zach Huntley 1 R; Tyler Pirsig 1-for-3, 1 R; Alec Pepper 1 BB, 1 RBI; Tyler Steele 1 R, 1 HBP, 1 RBI, 1 HBP; Ethan Horstmann 1 BB, 1 RBI; 1 RBI; Sean Coffey 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 SB