The Austin baseball team lost a heartbreaker Thursday when they visited Winona to take on the Winhawks in a Big Nine Conference match up.

The Packers led most of the game, but Winona battled back into the game by scoring six runs the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game at 9-9.

The Winhawks won the game in the bottom of the eighth when a walk-off home run with two runners on closed the game 12-9.

Both teams were evenly matched, each having 12 hits and a gut-wrenching seven errors apiece.

Austin had three multiple-hit batters which accounted for five of the runs.

The rest of the team made up the difference.

Mike Leathers started the game pitching five innings allowing seven hits on only one earned run

Leathers struck out three and walked only two batters.

Neil Toov came took the mound in the sixth to pitch the remainder of the game. Toov took the loss by allowing two earned runs on four hits.

He struck out one and walked two.

"This is a hard loss to take.

I truly feel we could have won this game, but we did not field the ball particularly well today, and we kept them in the game by committing too many mistakes. Winona took advantage of the extra outs we gave them," said Packer coach Kris Fadness.

Austin falls to 4-9 overall and 4-7 in the Big Nine Conference.

Their next game will be a doubleheader at home against Owatonna Friday, May 10, at 4:30 p.m.

Linescore:

Austin00171000--9127

Winona10200603--12127