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  • Mankato’s Steven Helget can’t tag out Austin’s Nate Johnson as he slides safely into home during Wednesday’s amateur baseball game at Franklin Rogers Park. Matt Johnston

    Mankato Twins

July 3, 2008

Errors cost Kato

Mankato Twins commit seven errors in loss to Austin

Tyler Buckentine

MANKATO — It wasn’t that Mankato’s bats were completely dead. The pitching wasn’t all that bad either.

What really doomed the Twins was their problems in the field. Mankato committed seven errors in its 11-3 loss to the Austin Blue Sox in a Southern Minny amateur baseball game Tuesday at Franklin Rogers Park.

“We just didn’t show up to play tonight,” said Mankato second baseman/manager Jay Nessler. “We didn’t help out (Ryan) Greene at all.”

Greene pitched the first five innings, allowing five runs in the loss. He was relieved by Kyle Hoover in the sixth and Ben Kaus in the ninth.

Mankato finished the game with seven hits. Austin finished with 10, though most of them were scattered throughout the game. But with each error the Twins made, the Blue Sox took advantage.

Austin jumped to a 4-1 advantage after two innings on runs scored by Nate Johnson and Adam Port. Mankato scraped runs together in the first, third and fourth innings to cut the lead to 1.

The Blue Sox answered with a run in the fifth, but what broke the game open was a six-run seventh inning — a rally that required only two hits.

“We had some errors and they’ll kill you,” Nessler said. “You can’t give them extra opportunities when you’re not really hitting the ball all that well.”

Austin scored twice on a throwing error, and again on a passed ball. Four batters later, Pat Wolard drove in three runs on a bases-loaded double to the left-center gap.

Mankato couldn’t answer the rally and suffered an eight-run loss that drops the Twins’ record to 6-4 overall.

“We made big errors at really bad times so our pitchers threw a lot of pitches,” Twins catcher Steven Helget said. “They scored a lot of runs off our errors.”

Aside from the errors, Nessler admits that he also would’ve liked to see more production from his lineup.

“Offensively, we’ve been struggling,” Nessler said. “We got a few hits tonight early on but we’re still trying to get the big hit and the big inning.”

Shortstop Kosuke Hattori led the Twins offensively with a pair of hits and a run scored. Zach Danelson finished the game with an RBI single and a run scored. Nessler also hit an RBI single.

The Twins, who have lost two straight, play St. James at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Wolverton Field.

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