The Austin baseball team saw a frustrating week come to an end as it lost to Mankato West 5-3 at Seltz Field Friday.

The Packers (10-8 overall) made a late push in the bottom of the seventh inning when Teyghan Hovland knocked in a run to make it 5-3, but Dawson Mills flew out to left field to end the game with runners on first and second.

Austin, which lost to Rochester Mayo 9-8 on Tuesday, allowed two unearned runs in the loss to the Scarlets (11-8 overall).

“We’ve got to work on some of the little things,” Austin head coach Joe Kroc said. “Base running has killed us in the last two games. We’ve got to clean up a lot of things going into the playoffs. I like our team and I like our chances, we’ve just got to to tune things up and make sure we’re firing on all cylinders.”

West went up 2-0 in the fourth when Max Goertzen knocked in a run. The lead was extended to 4-0 when Austin committed a two-out throwing error that allowed two runs to score.

Nate Murphy had a pinch-hit RBI double in the sixth for Austin.

The Packers currently do not have another game scheduled until the postseason begins on May 25, but the team may try to find an opponent to play on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Packers are likely to have a first round home game in the Section 1AAA Tournament and the path to state will run through Marcusen Park as Austin is the host site for the section tournament this year.

West 0 0 1  3 0 1  0  —  5  10  3

Austin 0 0 0  0 0 1  2  —  3   6   2

Austin pitching: Teyghan Hovland (L) 5 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 4 R, 2 ER, 3 K; Nate Murphy, 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER; Hunter Guyette, 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R

Austin hitting: Andrew Schumacher, 0-for-2, R, HBP; Riley Wempner, 1-for-3, R; Guyette, 1-for-4; Michael O’Connor, 0-for-4; AJ Mueller, 1-for-3, R, HBP; Hovland, 2-for-4, RBI; Jackson Oehlfke, 0-for-2, BB; Nick Dunlap, 2 BBs; Tony Ciola, 0-for-1, BB; Nate Murphy, 1-for-1, double, RBI, SB; Dawson Mills, 0-for-1