Faribault Baseball Loses Heartbreaker at Byron

The Faribault Falcons were defeated 2-1 today in Byron in Section 1 Class 3A Tournament action.  Byron is the top seed, Faribault the #8 seed.

On the other side of the bracket #3 seed Albert Lea blanked #6 Winona 5-0 while #2 seed Jordan edged #7 Kasson-Mantorville 1-0.

The Falcons will play Red Wing 5:00 p.m. Tuesday in Winger country  The Austin Packers defeated Red Wing 6-5.

The double elimination tournament resumes action Tuesday at the high seed before the final four survivors play in Red Wing Saturday.

The Falcons loaded the bases in the first inning with no outs but could only score one run.  The game started with a walk, a hit batsman and another walk.  The next two batters were struck out before Tim Nierby got an RBI by being hit by a pitch.  The final out was also recorded by strikeout.

Faribault had that lead until the bottom of the 4th inning.  They had other chances too.

In the second inning Ayden Qualey hit a ground ball to start the inning that resulted in an error.  Jack Knutson executed a sacrifice bunt to move Qualey into scoring position.  The next two batters were struck out.

Senior John Palmer started the game on the hill for the Falcons.  In the bottom of the 4th inning Jake Coshenet singled to lead off the inning for Byron.  He would advance to second on a wild pitch.  There was an error.  Isaac Rogne hit a single resulting in Coshenet scoring to tie the game at 1.

The top of the 5th inning started with a walk of junior Hunter Nelson.  Senior Zach Slinger bunted him over to second base.  On a ground out Slinger advanced to third base. Senior Jordan Nawrocki hit a line drive to third base ending the Falcons threat.

The bottom of the fifth Nelson was toeing the rubber for the Falcons.  After two outs were recorded there were back to back Faribault errors.  Rogne clubbed an RBI single scoring the run that would be the margin of victory.

The line totals were:

Faribault 1 run  2 hits  4 errors
Byron      2 runs 5 hits  1 error

Junior John Lutzi earned the win for the Bears while throwing a 2 hitter.  He had 11 strikeouts, 4 walks, threw 120 pitches, 68 strikes.

Palmer went the first three innings allowing 2 hits, an earned run while walking 1.  He had no strikeouts.  Threw 53 pitches, 34 strikes.

Nelson took the loss giving up 3 hits in his 3 innings of work with run that scored being an unearned run.  Nelson recorded one strikeout, one walk while throwing 48 pitches, 27 strikes.

Slinger and Qualey had the only hits for Faribault in the pitcher's duel.

This is Memorial Day weekend.