The Austin Blue Sox went from elation to disappointment when they beat Rochester 8-0 to clinch a three-way tie for the Section 2B No. 1 seed. But they lost a coin toss shortly after the win in Marcusen Park Friday night.

Rochester (4-2 Section 2B) won a three-way tie breaking coin toss to take the No. 1 spot, and the Blue Sox (16-15 overall, 4-2 Section 2B) ended up as the No. 3 seed and will play the Greyhounds in Marcusen Park Sunday at 6 p.m.

“It’s bittersweet,” Blue Sox manager Josh Kunze said. “But it’s all meaningless, you’re gonna have to win a couple of tough games to get out of the section anyway. The coin flip is unfortunate for us because we’ll see (Greyhounds pitcher) Dave (Meyer) and we’ve struggled with him before.”

On Friday, Kunze hit a grand slam that sailed just over the left field fence in the seventh inning, which saw Austin score seven times and put the game away. Kunze said that he sees the ball well off of lefties, which gave him an advantage against Rochester southpaw Andy Larson.

“I’ve always at least seen Andy’s pitches well,” Kunze said. “I haven’t always hit him well, but I try to have good at bats against him In my third at-bat when he struck me out he started fastball in and then in fourth at bat he started fastball in again and that’s how I got it.”

After the game was scoreless for the first four innings, Nate Johnson knocked in Aaron Port on a groundout in the fifth. Johnson knocked in the first run of the seventh on a bloop single to score a run. Pat Wolard followed with a two-run ground rule double before Kunze’s blast.

On the mound, Austin ace Sean Breslin allowed just two hits in nine innings. The only jam he faced was in the top of the second, when the Royals loaded the bases on a two-out error, a single and a walk. Breslin got Tim Oesterlin to fly out to escape trouble.

“(Sean’s) been up and down for us,” Kunze said. “We’ve been kind of wondering which Sean we’re gonna get. The guy that goes nine innings of zeros or the guy that gives up seven runs. He’s been battling some inflammation, so he’s been gutting it out.”

Breslin said he warmed up a little longer to prepare for his start Friday, and it helped him. But he’s not sure where his inconsistency has come from.

“It depends on the day and which team’s out there to play. Any different day anything can happen,” Breslin said. “They hit the ball hard tonight, just right at people.”

The coin toss came as a result of the Blue Sox, Royals and Hounds all having the same record (4-2 in Section 2B). While all three teams swept Faribault, the Blue Sox swept Rochester, the Hounds swept the Blue Sox and the Royals swept the Hounds.

“It’s disappointing to walk a way with an 8-0 win and we have a better runs allowed than the other teams and we handled Rochester twice and now they’re No. 1,” Kunze said. “But it’s in the Section by laws and we’re not complaining.”

Blue Sox 8, Royals 0

Blue Sox pitching: Sean Breslin (W), 9 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 0 R, 4 K, 1 HBP

Blue Sox hitting: Aaron Port, 1-for-3, 2 R, SB, BB; Andy Swank, 1-for-3, R, BB; Nate Johnson, 1-for-4, 2 RBIs, R; Pat Wolard, 2-for-4, double, 2 RBIs, R; Duell Higbe, 0-for-4; Sean Breslin, 0-for-3, R, BB; Josh Kunze, 2-for-4, HR, 4 RBIs, R; Joe Kroc, 0-for-3, BB; Jason Denzer, 2-for-4, double, R

Royals pitching: Andy Larson (L), 6 1/3 IP, 9 H, 4 BB, 8 ER, 6 K

Royals hitting: Nic Obey, 0-for-4; Nate Neis, 0-for-3; Joe Siple, 0-for-4; Josh Matti, 0-for-4; Tom Corcoran, 0-for-4; Dave Adams, 0-for-3; Jim Strain, 2-for-3; Kirk Bubado, 0-for-2, BB; Tim Oesterlin, 0-for-3