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It was a long, cold night in Seltz Field as things went south in the sixth inning for the Packer baseball team in a 22-7 loss in six innings to Northfield.

Right after the Packers pulled within 10-7 on a two-out, two-run single by John Rollie in the bottom of the fifth, the Raiders (14-4 overall) responded with 12 runs in the top of the sixth to ice the game.

Austin (6-10 overall) used five different pitchers in the loss and it committed seven errors as a team.

“It makes it tough for us, but we’re expecting our kids to throw more strikes and we allowed too many free bases,” Austin head coach Jacob Nelson said. “We had a hard time finding the zone and they got some key hits at the right time. We’ll bounce back. I think our bats were hotter than there’s and I like that.”

Austin junior Noah Dunlap struck out five in three innings, while allowing just one earned run and doubling twice, but he left the game after the third to preserve his arm for next week’s slate of games.

“I wanted to stay out there,” Dunlap said. “I’m the type of player, where no matter what, I want to be out there. We out-hit them and when we get the bats going and cut down on the errors, we’re a team that can do a lot of damage.”

With three games in four days, and the postseason starting in a week, Nelson said he wanted to save Dunlap for the final stretch.

“I wish we could’ve kept Noah in for longer because he was starting to feel it, but we needed to save his arm for next week,” Nelson said. 

Northfield 2 1 1  6 0 12  –  22  13  2

Austin 1 0 4  0 2  0   –   7   13  7

Austin pitching: Noah Dunlap (L) 3 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 4 R, 1 ER, 5 K; Jonah Klein, ⅓ IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 ER; Keagan Duholm, 1 ⅔ IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 K; Cooper Jacobsen, 0 IP, 3 BB, 3 R, 0 ER; Dylan Wencl, 1 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 ER, 1 K

Austin hitting: Klein, 0-for-3; Casey Denzer, 1-for-3, R; Noah Dunlap, 2-for-2, 2 doubles, 2 RBIs, 2 R; Cooper Jacobsen, 1-for-2, RBI, R, BB; Benton Purkapile, 2-for-3, RBI, BB; Haydn Quitmeyer, 1-for-2, R; Rob Lillis, 0-for-2; Cody Pederson, 3-for-3, RBI, R; John Rollie, 2-for-3, double, 2 RBIs; Cam Lundberg, 0-for-1; Tyler Carter, 0-for-2; Dylan Wencl, 0-for-1; Keagan Duholm, 0-for-1