Rochester Mayo baseball coach Jim Sonju said he wasn't sure where Vince Anderson would fit into his team's lineup, but the Owatonna transfer made himself at home on the mound Thursday night in Austin.

Anderson fired a three-hit shutout in his second start for the Spartans, blanking a hot-hitting Austin squad 2-0 in Big Nine Conference baseball at Marcusen Park. Anderson struck out four, walked none and got flawless defense behind him to bring Austin's five-game winning streak to a close.

The Packers countered with ace Kyle Rizzi, who also surrendered just three hits. Three errors, however, accounted for both Mayo runs.

"You hate to see either pitcher lose that game," Sonju said. "Rizzi pitched a great game and Vince pitched an awesome game. He's pretty much putting himself in the No. 2 spot."

All six hits in the game were singles. Austin's Joey Kroc was 2-for-3 despite spraining his ankle in the first inning. Trailing 2-0, Kroc led off the bottom of the seventh with a single through the left side, but Rizzi grounded into a rally-killing 4-6-3 double play.

"We hit the ball hard, I thought, we just hit it right at them," said Austin coach Troy Watkins. "The difference is they made the plays in the field and we didn't make the plays in the field."

Mayo's Tony Konicek reached on a one-out error in the fourth, stole second and advanced to third when nobody was there to catch Adam Edge's throw across the diamond. Matt Meyer lofted a sacrifice fly to center to plate the eventual game-winner.

The Spartans tacked on another run in the seventh. Ryan Miller blooped a two-out single, stole second, and moved to third when Anderson's grounder was booted. Courtesy runner Pat Noll took second but was cut down trying to follow Miller home on Ben Heydt's RBI-single to left.

Jordan VanProosdy had Austin's only other hit, coming with one out in the sixth.

"It was a lot of fun," Anderson said. "I was throwing a lot of off-speed to keep them guessing.

"The defense played really well behind me."

Anderson's only other start resulted in a three-hitter in Mayo's 7-4 win over Faribault earlier this season. Rizzi dropped to 2-3 after beating Albert Lea 10-4 on Monday.

"It's tough to go out there when you don't have any run support," Rizzi said. "In games that we've won we got out and scored early. It's nice to at least get one right away.

"At the same time it is a motivator to come out and do your best pitching and hopefully something will happen."

Mayo's error-free defense prevented any such occurance. The Spartans (7-5, 6-3) climbed back into the top tier of the conference standings with their fifth win in seven games.

"It's too bad we wasted another pitching performance for Kyle," Watkins said. "He's been our anchor for our pitching staff all year, he's just been on the unfortunate side of a couple low-scoring games."

Austin slips to 7-5 overall and 7-4 in Big Nine play. The Packers host Mankato East for a doubleheader Saturday at 11 a.m.

Box Score:

MayoAustin

abrhbiabrhbi

Brady 2b3000Johnson cf3000

Senne lf3000Swank 3b3000

Konicek cf3100Kroc ss3020

Meyer 1b2001

Ramirez pr0000

Miller 3b3110Rizzi p3000

Anderson p3000Edge c3000

Noll cr0000Lyon 2b2000

Heydt rf3011Selmecki lf2000

Wahl c2000Bastyr 1b2000

Becker ss2010VnPrsdy rf2010

Totals24232Totals23030

Mayo0001001--230

Austin0000000--033

Team LOB--Mayo 2, Austin 2. DP--Mayo 1. SF--Meyer. SB--Konicek, Miller.

IPHRERBBSO

Rochester Mayo

Anderson W,2-0730004

Austin

Rizzi L,2-3732003