Hayek field had a playoff atmosphere Friday night when the Albert Lea VFW baseball team took on the Mantorville Mets in a doubleheader.

Both teams entered the contest undefeated and the Mets stood on top of the standings with the Tigers trailing by just a win. A sweep for either team could swing the season drastically, but in the end the two evenly matched teams split the two-game set as Mantorville won the first game 6-4 and Albert Lea took the second game 9-5.

Both teams played tight in the first two innings and didn’t put together any real scoring threats until the Tigers broke through in the bottom of the third for a run when Cole Sorenson scored on a single by Carter Kortan.

That woke every one up as the game finally turned into the battle fans anticipated.

The Mets came back in the fourth to tie the game by taking advantage of Albert Lea errors and scored an unearned run.

Then the Tigers rallied in the fifth inning to score two runs, both coming on a double by Jordan Cooper who had a big night at the plate.

Mantorville started the sixth inning with five consecutive basehits and scored four in the inning to take a 5-3 that it wouldn’t give up.

“Just one bad inning we had there, not really a bad inning, give them credit they hit the ball,” Albert Lea coach Jack Kortan said. “Maybe we should have made a pitching change earlier to throw them off, that was the third time through the lineup.”

Aaron Klatt started for the Tigers and went five innings, giving up five runs on seven hit and striking out four, but when reliever Colby Strilaeff came on in the sixth he couldn’t stop the Mets rush initially as he surrendered a run-scoring double to the first batter he faced.

In the second game Albert Lea came out more relaxed and found their grove at the plate as they rapped out 11 hits and scored nine runs.

Cooper drove in the first run of the game when he blasted a triple, but he was just heating up. Cooper finished the game 4-for-4 with a single and a double and added two stolen bases and three runs.

“He’s in a zone now,” Kortan said. “He’s not swinging at any bad pitches and he hit the ball hard, every ball was hit hard.”

In the fifth Cooper blasted a pitch off the fence in the alley in left center for his second double of the night and third extra-base hit of the evening.

Carter Kortan limited the Mets to three runs on five hits while striking out six, relying on a strong curveball to keep hitters off-balance.

Mantorville 6, Albert Lea 4, Game 1

Mantorville – 000 104 1 – 6 11 1

Albert Lea – 001 021 0 – 4 10 2

LP – Aaron Klatt – 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Albert Lea 9, Mantorville 3, Game 2

Mantorville – 002 010 0 – 3 5 3

Albert Lea – 104 022 x – 9 11 2

WP – Carter Kortan 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K