Redlegs blow past Blue Sox
Published 12:21 am Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Austin Blue Sox suffered their third loss by more than 10 runs this season when they dropped a 17-3 contest in seven innings to the Southern Minny Redlegs in Marcusen Park Wednesday.
This loss had a lot in common with the other lopsided shortcomings of the Blue Sox (1-8 overall) — mostly it was errors and a lack of clutch hitting.
Austin allowed four unearned runs to score with two outs in the first two innings and the Redlegs put it away with 10 runs in the fourth inning to go up 14-0. Austin finished with six errors.
“This is becoming a trend. We started off fielding well and now we’re not picking it up,” Blue Sox player/manager Josh Kunze said. “It shouldn’t have gotten out of hand like it did. We had some quality guys out there, but they didn’t play up to it.”
Austin had the bases loaded in the first when Kunze grounded out to end the frame and the Blue Sox left runners on second and third in the fifth on another Kunze groundout.
The Redlegs (5-4 overall) are a team of area standouts, that includes recent high school grads and players that will play in high school next year.
Steve Serratore, who lives in Austin but plays for Mayo high school, had an RBI, and Southland grads Alan May and Chris May also chipped in during the win.
Alan May finished 2-for-5 with a triple and an RBI and he’s enjoyed his time on the Redlegs, who are competing as a Class ‘A’ team.
“It’s really fun to play with all of these guys,” he said. “They’re all good players and I’m just taking everything in. They’re really helping me and it’s a good baseball atmosphere.”
The May brothers also got a chance to play against their former Southland teammate Brian Voigt, who went 2-for-3 for the Blue Sox.
“That’s the first time I’ve played against him,” Alan May said. “It’s fun to go against an old teammate.”
The Blue Sox will have a lot of time off before their next game, which is next Friday on the road against the Mankato Mets.
“We’re going to take this Friday and have a team practice so we can back to the basics,” Kunze said.
Redlegs 2 2 0 10 0 2 1 — 17 17 6
Blue Sox 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 — 3 6 0
Blue Sox pitching: Brady Klingfus (L), 4 IP, 12 H, 3 BB, 14 R, 7 ER, 4 K; Mark Harber, 3 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 ER, 1 K
Blue Sox hitting: Brandon Rector, 0-for-3; Derek McMasters, 0-for-2, 2 BBs; Brian Voigt, 2-for-3, R, SB, BB; Mark Harber, 1-for-4; Brady Klingfus, 0-for-2, 2 BBs, R; Josh Kunze, 0-for-2, BB, HBP; Carter Guthmiller, 1-for-4, RBI; Steven Rizzi, 0-for-4; Jamie Pratt, 0-for-1, BB; Josh Pederson, double; Jon Mittag, 1-for-1, R
Redlegs hitting: Alan May, 2-for-5, triple, RBI, BB; Josh Shirley, 2-for-3, 3 RBIs; Cole Sorensen, 1-for-2, RBI, 2 BBs; Ben O’Reilly, 1-for-2, RBI, 2 BBs; Adam Borst, 1-for-3, RBI; Jordan Ziegler, 3-for-3, 3 RBIs; Kyle Krings, 1-for-5; Connor Kortan, 4-for-5, double, 2 RBIs; Ater Manyang, 1-for-2, RBI; Cris Caldwell, 1-for-2, double; Steve Serratore, 0-for-1, RBI, BB; Chris May, 0-for-1, BB