Hulne: Austin has been at its best in baseball this year

Published 8:53 pm Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Baseball in Austin hasn’t just been riding high over the past few months, it has taken southeast Minnesota by storm.

Rocky Hulne, Austin Daily Herald Sports Editor

After the Packers took third place in the Minnesota Class AAA State Baseball Tournament this past spring, the Austin summer teams put up an encore performance that will be hard to match. The Austin Post 91 Legion baseball team and the Austin Post 1216 VFW baseball team both qualified for their perspective state tournaments.

It is a gigantic accomplishment for all of the baseball players in town and the surrounding communities, who have chipped in this summer.

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They have put in endless hours under the dome in the winter and on the diamond in the spring and summer. There have been cold, wet and miserable days and hot, humid and unbearable days.

Through it all, Austin has been great.

Baseball can often provide the ultimate mental test as the game is unforgiving to those who lose concentration or lose their cool. A simple error or a bad at bat the wrong time can immediately swing momentum away from a team and turn a sure win into a stunning loss.

Austin has gone a long stretch while avoiding those type of letdowns on the diamond.

These players have learned what it takes to compete when everything is on the line and they’ve learned to overcome letdowns to bounce back and bring their best. Those lessons will follow them throughout their lives beyond baseball.