ROCHESTER — The Austin softball team couldn’t overcome a letdown in the fourth inning as it lost to Rochester Mayo (7-6 overall, 5-2 Big Nine) 10-6 on the road Tuesday.

Austin (5-9 overall, 4-7 Big Nine), which was playing its first game in 10 days, led 5-1 going into the bottom of the fourth when a couple of setbacks helped the Spartans surge to an 8-5 lead.

“The fourth was pretty bad,” Austin head coach Tina Strauss said. “It started with two errors and then (Mayo) started hitting the ball pretty well.”Austin stranded a runner on third twice in the early innings as it could’ve built a bigger lead.

“It would’ve been nice if we could’ve gotten a few more hits,” Strauss said.

Austin 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 — 6 6 3

Mayo 0 1 0 7 0 2 X — 10 9 3

Austin pitching: Abbey Ball (L), 3 2/3 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 7 R, 1 K; Marie Clennon, 2 1/3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 K

Austin hitting: Katelyn Joseph, 1-for-3, R; Laura Siegfried, 1-for-4, R; Clennon, 1-for-4, 2 RBIs; Ball, 1-for-3; Danielle Tschann, 1-for-3, RBI, R; Kallie Hart, 1-for-3, RBI, R; Abby Bickler, 0-for-3, RBI, R; Taylor Hackensmith, 0-for-3, RBI