The fifth-rated Austin Greyhounds Class B amateur team took two of three games from Twin Cities' opponents to win first place in a four-team tournament Saturday at Marcusen Park.

The Greyhounds (24-12) and the Minneapolis Cobras (28-10) both finished 2-1 in the round-robin format, but Austin took the tourney title by the head-to-head tie-breaker. Austin beat the Cobras, 6-1, and Minneapolis Lyon's Pub, 2-1.

Austin's only loss was in the tournament finale, a 7-4 defeat to St. Paul Glynn Building Products. Fireballer Chris Olean, a former minor-leaguer for the Milwaukee Brewers, struck out 12 Greyhounds in seven innings.

After winning the tournament's first game 2-1 over Lyon's Pub Saturday morning, the Greyhounds waited around until the event's final two time slots to complete the round-robin play. Austin got seven strikeouts and a complete-game three-hitter from Chris Pack in taking what turned out to be the deciding game in the tournament.

Tim Kaplan went 2-2 with a run scored to highlight the Greyhounds' seven-hit effort. The Cobras got three shutout innings from starter Dan Hrncirik, but Steve Butler's relief appearance was short-lived. Butler gave up all six Austin runs in two-thirds of an inning.

Butler walked Nick Rohne as the first batter of the fourth inning, and Matt Cano hammered a double off the fence in right field for the tying RBI. Ryan Hanson followed it up with an RBI-single through the left side and took second on the left fielder's errant throw.

Two outs later, Kaplan singled to put runners on the corners, and Hanson came home on Matt Raso's misplayed grounder. John Frein chased Butler from the mound with an RBI-double, and Tate Cummins greeted reliever Bobby Jensen with a two-run blooper to left.

Lone loss

Toov got the start in the night's final game, a 7-4 loss to St. Paul Glynn Building Products. Olean's fastball buried the needle in the mid-90s despite a hamstring injury that hobbled the pitcher all night.

Olean allowed five hits, one walk and three earned runs. He had 10 strikeouts through four innings, including a rare four strikeout inning in the fourth. Leading off the inning, Hanson reached when the third strike was dropped by the catcher. Toov and Dave Meyer both went down swinging, but Greyhounds' player/manager Joe Serratore singled to left to drive in Hanson.

Matt Raso followed with a double down the left-field line to tie the score at 2-all.

Glynn got the early lead with a leadoff double and run-scoring single in the first accompanied by two Austin errors. Glynn regained the lead with two more runs in the fourth and three in the fifth.

Austin's last hurrah was a two-run rally in the sixth. Rohne led off with a single, moved to third on wild pitches, and scored on Toov's sacrifice fly to left. Hanson, who walked, scored on an throwing error on Meyer's grounder to third.

Serratore was 2-3 to lead the Greyhounds' hitting.

The fifth-rated Greyhounds host the second-rated Mankato Twins Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Marcusen Park. Austin also plays next Sunday at the Rochester Royals at 6 p.m. at Mayo Field.

Linescores:

Cobras

000 100 0 — 1 3 2

Austin

000 600 x — 6 7 0

Hrncirik, Butler (4), Jensen (4) and Gassard; Pack and Rohne. WP -- Pack. LP — Butler. 2B — A: Cano, Frein. 3B — MC: Krause.

Austin

020 002 0 -- 4 5 6

Glynn

202 020 x -- 7 8 1

Toov and Raso. WP — Olean. LP — Toov. 2B — A: Raso.