The Austin Post 91 Legion baseball team went on quite the roller coaster ride in the District tournament in Winona Thursday, and it was a ride that ended with Austin winning 8-7 in 10 innings.

Austin (19-8 overall) saw Winona score seven unearned runs and Post 91 was within one out to being knocked into the elimination bracket, but Austin prevailed and it is now one of three teams in the First District that has a shot at the state tournament. Austin will play the Rochester Redhawks in the semifinals at Winona Saturday at 1 p.m.

No. 1 seeded Austin beat No. 4 Winona when Daniel Bollingberg led off the bottom of the 10th inning off with a triple and Nik Gasner came up with a one-out, walk-off sacrifice fly to end the game.

“I just wanted to get a fly ball, because I saw a couple of ground balls that they fielded and we didn’t score on earlier in the game,” Gasner said. “I was just thinking I had to hit it in the outfield and Dan will score and we’ll win the game.”

The finish was dramatic enough, but Post 91 would have never been in the position to win if it weren’t for two big plays by Dylan Gasner and Ethan Horstmann. Dylan Gasner, who is Post 91’s catcher, kept Austin in position to win in the 10th after Winona had runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the 10th.

Dylan Gasner picked off the runner at second for the first out of the inning and Winona never had another baserunner.

“That guy made a base running mistake earlier in the game and I thought he’d try to get a big secondary lead on the bunt,” Dylan Gasner said. “Me and Dan [Bollingberg] talked about it and we decided to make a throw.”

Austin was staring a loss right in the face in the bottom of the ninth when Horstmann stepped up to the plate with a runner on third base and two outs. Horstmann was retired in his first four at-bats, but he laced a single up the middle to score the trying run and keep Austin’s hopes alive.

“I knew I was struggling all game and I was just trying to keep my head up,” Horstmann said. “Then with two outs and a guy on third it had to be me. He threw it right down the middle, I put a good swing on it and it went exactly where I wanted it to. It was amazing. We’ve improved drastically [this year]. It’s insane.”

Austin trailed 7-4 after four innings, and it had to slowly chip away to get back in the game. Steven Clennon had a two-out RBI in the fifth and Zach Huntley doubled in a run to make it 7-6 in the seventh.

While Austin’s bats were closing the gap, Jacob Kepmen was dominating on the mound as he pitched six scoreless innings.

“Jake was unbelievable,” Dylan Gasner said. “He was throwing strikes and mixing speeds. He had them on their toes the whole time. Hats off to him.”

Kempen has mostly pitched in short relief this year, but he wasn’t about to leave the game early on Thursday.

“I don’t think anything was going to slow me down,” Kempen said. “I felt good.”

Austin’s ultimate goal is to win its next two games and get to the state Legion baseball tournament, but it’s already proved a lot this season. Thursday’s game showed how Austin, which has won 10 straight games, has learned to overcome adversity and battle back when things aren’t going so well.

“It shows a lot for the team and where were at right now,” Austin co-head coach Andy Swank said. “Guys were up in the dugout all game. Ethan had been struggling almost as bad as anybody in the line up. He stayed with it and it paid off, I’m happy for him and happy for the whole team.”

Winona 0 0 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 7 10 2

Austin 0 3 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 — 8 12 3

Austin pitching: Isaac Shumacher, 3 2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 7 R, 0 ER, 5 K; Jacob Kempen, 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 0 R, 3 K; Steven Clennon (W) 1/3 IP, 0 R

Austin hitting: Daniel Bollingberg, 3-for-5, triple, 2 RBIs, R, BB; Dylan Gasner, 1-for-6; Nik Gasner, 1-for-5, double, RBI, R; Jordan Hart, 2-for-5, triple, 3 R; Zach Huntley, 1-for-3, double, 2 RBIs, R, BB; Clennon, 2-for-5, RBI, R, SB; Ethan Horstmann, 1-for-5, RBI; Alex Ciola, 1-fro-3, R, BB, HBP; Jason Stoulil, 0-for-3, RBI, BB