A little hustle went a long way for the Austin softball team in a 6-5 win over Faribault in Todd Park Wednesday.

After the Falcons had tied the game at five with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, Kaycee Lukes reached on an error off a dropped line drive by Faribault, advanced to second on a bunt by Rachel Donovan, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by Sara Sundberg.

“Kaycee did a nice job of hustling on that line shot,” Austin head coach Steve Knox said. “A lot of players would just simply stop in their tracks, but she kept running and made a big play for us.”

Sundberg, who was two-for-four with a double, hit a solid fly ball to center field to score Lukes and win the game for Austin (7-12 overall, 6-10 Big Nine).

“I kind of had a feeling that I was gonna pop it up. But it did good in the long run,” Sundberg said. “We had to score or it was going into extra innings.”

Lukes blooped a two-out, two-run single into right field to give the Packers a 4-1 lead in the second inning as Austin came out swinging.

“We had our bats going and we forced them to make plays,” Sundberg said.

It was the second straight game where Austin beat a team that beat them earlier this season. Faribault beat Austin 10-6 April 7 and John Marshall (who the Packers beat 7-3 Tuesday) beat Austin 4-2 April 14.

“It was good continuation from last night and the girls picked up where they left off with their hitting,” Knox said. “You can just see their level of confidence starting to rise. They feel a lot better about being in the batting situation.”

Faribault scored twice in the fifth, but it could’ve been much worse for the Packers. Bri Mayer caught a screaming line drive at third to start the inning, and Marie Clennon came up with a clutch strikeout when Faribault had runners on second and third with two outs.

Sundberg said the Packers are feeling good as they prepare for the Section 1A Tournament, which starts next week.

“We weren’t hitting and we were making so many errors before. But we’re back now,” she said.

The game started in the bottom of the first as a continuation from last week’s rainout.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

F 1 0 1 0 2 0 1 5 8 2

A 2 2 1 0 0 0 1 6 6 0

Austin pitching: Marie Clennon (W), 7 IP, 8 H, 1 BB, 5 ER, 3 K

Austin hitting: Katlynne Fisher, 0-for-1, R, BB; Kaycee Lukes, 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, 2 R; Rachel Donovan, 0-for-3; Sara Sundberg, 2-for-4, double, RBI, R; Robin Arjes, 1-for-2, BB; Brandi Ruroden, 0-for-3; Ashley Crump, 1-for-3, RBI, R; Bri Mayer, 0-for-2; Jolene Brody, 0-for-2, R, BB; Kelly Bednar, 0-for-1