The No. 3 seeded Austin softball team overcame some early troubles to keep its season alive after it lost to No. 2 Northfield 8-5 and beat No. 4 Kasson-Mantorville 11-5 in the Section 1AAA tournament in Todd Park Thursday.

Austin sophomore Avery Thompson went four-for-four with her first career varsity homer and three RBIs in the must-win game against the KoMets.

“That homer felt real good because I was in a slump and it was nice to break that,” Thompson said. “We just had to keep ourselves up. We had to make sure we weren’t acting tired.”

Austin led KM 10-1 after four innings and it was able to hold on advance to Tuesday’s round, where the Packers will take on Red Wing in an elimination game in Todd Park at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Errors caught up to Austin in the loss to Northfield in the first game of the day as all eight of the Raider runs were unearned and Austin finished the game with seven miscues.

Austin jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning after Jordyn McCormack scored on a wild pitch, but the Raiders took a 6-3 lead by scoring three in the bottom of the fourth.

Austin pulled within 6-5 when Hannah McMasters tripled in a run and scored on a single by Kyra Walters in the fifth, but that was all of the damage Austin would do.

“We played a good first game, but some of the errors go to us and I think that was the difference in that game,” McCormack said. “We didn’t want the [KM] game to be our last game. We want to get as far as we can.”

Austin (12-9 overall) beat Red Wing by scores of 11-0 and 8-1 in the regular season, but the Packers aren’t going to overlook the Wingers.

“We beat Red Wing twice, but they’ve had two good games since then,” Thompson said. “We need to make sure we come out playing hard and we don’t underestimate them.”

Austin 1 1 1  0 2 0  0  —  5  9  7

Northfield 0 0 3  3 2 0  X  —  8  7  4

Austin pitching: Jaeda Bekaert (L) 4 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 0 ER, 3 K; Tori Gardner, 2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 ER

Austin hitting: Halie Retterath, 1-for-4, double, R; Adison Medgaarden, 0-for-4, RBI; Jordyn McCormack, 2-for-4, 2 R; Hannah McMasters, 3-for-4, triple, RBI, R; Kyra Walters, 2-for-3, RBI, BB; Taylor Derry, 0-for-3; Avery Thompson, 0-for-3, R, HBP; Hannah Biwer, 0-for-3; Emilee Lau, 1-for-3; Jenna Braaten, 0-for-1

KM 1 0 0  0 0 1  3  —   5   9  4

Austin 3 0 2  5 0 1  X  — 11 13 1

Austin pitching: Hannah Rasmussen (W) 6 1/3 IP, 9 H, 2 BB, 5 ER, 6 K; Gardner, 1/3 IP, 0 R

Austin hitting: Retterath, 2-for-4, double, SB, 2 R; Medgaarden, 1-for-3, R, SB; McCormack, 1-for-3, R, BB; McMasters, 1-for-3, RBI, R, SB; Walters, 2-for-2, double, RBI, 2 R, HBP;Thompson, 4-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs, 3 R; Biwer, 1-for-3, 2 RBIs, R, BB; Rasmussen, 1-for-3; Las, 0-for-1; Erin Bickler, 0-for-2; Elizabeth Christianson, 1-for-1; Destiny Gray, 0-for-1; AJ Richard, 0-for-1; Braaten, 0-for-1