The Austin baseball team did something it hadn’t done since 2009 in Dick Seltz Field Thursday, thanks to another big pitching effort from one of its seniors.

Austin senior Nik Gasner didn’t allow an earned runs in seven innings and the Packers won their first postseason contest in six years when they knocked off No. 9 seeded Lakeville South 2-1 to advance to the second round of the Section 1AAA tournament, where they will play at No. 1 Northfield 1 p.m. Saturday.

Austin (8-11 overall) committed two errors to allow a run in the bottom of the seventh and South (3-18 overall) had the game-tying run on second with one out, but Austin’s Shaun Case made a running catch in right field near the fence to seal the win.

“We’ve been working real hard on keeping the mental part of the game down and not getting down when we commit an error,” Austin head coach Chris Gogolewski said. “The boys showed they can come back, stay focused and finish the game.”

Austin put its season on the arm of Nik — who continued his hot streak on the mound. Nik allowed just one hit in the last three innings of Thursday’s win and he’s allowed just three earned runs in his last 20 innings on the mound — which included wins over Rochester Century, Owatonna and South.

Nik said he’s made a couple of tweaks to re-gain his accuracy on the mound.

“I’d like to thank Faye Bollingberg. She’s given me therapy on my arm which has helped. I had some arm problems earlier in the season,” Nik said. “Me and my brother [Dylan] also went through my mechanics to get me more consistent.”

As solid as Nik was on the hill Thursday, the Packers defense made some big plays as well. Nate Conner threw a runner out at first by a hair to save a run in the fifth inning, Ryan McCormack caught a line drive and threw to first for a double play when South had the bases loaded with no outs in the third and Dylan made plenty of big stops behind the plate on curve balls.

“There were a lot of spots in the game where [the defense] helped me out,” Nik said. “When they had bases loaded and zero outs, we got that double play that Mac caught. That was a huge play in the game and I think it really gave us momentum. We got the win because of our defense and how we played as a unit.”

McCormack also had the biggest hit of the game when he laced a two-out single to center field to put the Packers up 2-0 in the top of the sixth inning. Austin had taken a 1-0 lead in the fifth when pinch runner Tristen Bauer scored on a wild pitch with two outs.

“With the bases loaded I was just trying to make contact and get it in the outfield to get a run in,” McCormack said of his single. “The team came up clutch and we held on.”

Nik has been on the Austin baseball team’s varsity squad for four years and he missed out on a possible playoff mound start his sophomore year due to an injury. He was glad to be part of the Packers team that finally snapped its playoff losing streak.

“It definitely feels good and it’s always nice to be the first to do something in awhile,” Gasner said. “Our goal is to keep it going and hopefully make a run to state somehow.”

Austin now enters the double elimination portion of the Section 1AAA tournament. If the Packers win Saturday, they will play 1:30 p.m. Monday and if they lose Saturday, they will play 11 a.m. Monday.

The Packers beat Northfield 12-5 in Austin Monday.

“We’re excited to play Northfield. We just played them and it was a great game,” Goglewski said. “We’re going to go up there and see if we can repeat that, but we’re going to have another game like today, it won’t be another 12-5 game. It’s going to be tight.”

South 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 1 6 2

Austin 0 0 0 0 1 1 X — 2 6 3

Austin pitching: Nik Gasner (W) 7 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 1 R, 0 ER, 5 K

Austin hitting: Dylan Gasner, 2-for-3; Alex Ciola, 0-for-3; Nate Conner, 2-for-3, R; Nik Gasner, 1-for-2, BB; Jason Stoulil, 0-for-3; Jake Reinartz, 0-for-2, BB; Ryan McCormack, 1-for-3, RBI; Riley Wagner, 0-for-2, BB; Isaac Schumacher, 0-for-2, BB; Tristen Bauer, R