All it took was one statement by Austin Merchants manager Nate Hansen to sum up his team's performance on Monday night.

"We were tired," Hansen said. "We just didn't have it tonight."

The Merchants certainly did not have it on Monday, and they looked flat throughout their 14-6 loss to the Stewartville-Racine Sharks. Austin fell behind in the first three innings and were never able to battle back from an early 5-0 deficit.

Chuck Krom led the way for Stewartville-Racine, giving up four earned runs in a complete-game victory. Krom also went 3-4 at the plate, scoring two runs and driving in one.

Brian Parlin took the loss for the Merchants, going 3 1/3 innings and allowing five earned runs.

Mike Haugen pitched the final 3 2/3 innings and gave up six scores.

Every Sharks starter reached base in the game, with Todd Garnatz leading the way with four hits.

Scott Boettchen and Nik Coates led S-R with three RBIs each.

Sharks Manager Andy Johnson was pleased with his teams well-rounded performance.

"We hit well and got good pitching from Chuck," Johnson said. "We got a little sloppy in the end, but it didn't matter because we were up by so much."

The Merchants were able to put up four runs in the last two innings of the game, getting a handful of singles and capitalizing on a couple of errors by the Sharks.

Clint Ripley led the charge for the Merchants, going 2-3 with two runs scored and a late-inning RBI.

Reserve infielder Andy Swank had two RBI-singles, and player/coach Hansen chipped in a sacrifice fly.

"We just weren't on our game tonight," said Hansen. "Luckily we've got a much needed break coming up to work on some of our fundamentals."

The loss dropped the Merchants record to 5-7 in the Twin Rivers League, while the Sharks upped their conference record to 10-6. The Merchants next game is not until July 7, when they hit the road to take on Kasson.

Linescore:

Sharks0001023--691

Merchants2040305--14202

WP--Krom. LP--Parlin.