It's rare when allowing only two hits could be called a letdown, but when you're All-State pitcher Amy Kelly and you're coming off a no-hitter against Owatonna, the bar gets set pretty high.

The Austin softball team made some early runs pay off with more excellent pitching and defense Saturday afternoon, defeating host Faribault 4-1.

"I thought we had another good performance as far as the pitching and fielding went," said Austin head coach Todd Waterbury. "We hit the ball hard, just not as consistently as I'd like, which made it hard for us to capitalize on some chances as the game went on."

Kylene Erstad started the game off for the Packers by reaching on an error. Betsy Hingeveld followed with a bunt single, and after two flyouts, Steph Eslinger delivered a single that brought home Erstad with the game's first run.

Austin got its first two runners on in the second thanks to a walk to Teresa White and a Stephanie Sundberg base hit. With two runners on, a throwing error on Erstad's grounder allowed Lauren Goettsch -- pinch-running for White -- to score all the way from second. Kelly then smacked a single to left that brought home Sundberg and Erstad.

Faribault finally pushed across a run in the fifth, but that was all the offense the Falcons could manage.

Kelly fanned 13 batters while allowing only the two hits and a walk. In addition to her pitching exploits, she also went 2-for-4 at the plate with two key RBIs. Eslinger was 2-4 as well with an RBI and a double. Nicole Turvey had a triple for the other Packer extra-base hit.

Faribault drops to 2-3 with the loss, while Austin heads into Monday's clash with Rochester Mayo at a perfect 2-0 both overall and in Big Nine Conference play.

Linescore:

Austin1300000--480

Faribault0000100--122

WP--Kelly (2-0). LP--Griesert.