The walks added up quickly for the Albert Lea American Legion baseball team Friday against Austin at Hayek Field.

Post 56 pitchers walked 10 batters and eight came around to score to give Post 91 a 17-5 win in five innings.

“We played hard and played good defensive ball,” Albert Lea coach Boyd Eisenbraun said. “Those walks got us.”

Austin jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two of its first four hitters drew walks and later came around to score. The first inning was just the beginning of the night for Post 56.

In the second inning two more batters who drew walks came around to score as starter Jordan Hanson struggled with his control. Post 91 added five runs in that frame to hold an 8-0 lead.

The Albert Lea bats showed some life in the bottom of the second inning when Casey Woodside and Logan Kortan hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. Jared Gavle hit an RBI single and Josh Eisenbraun followed with an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to 8-2. That was as close as Post 56 would get as Austin added another four runs in the third, sending 11 hitters to the plate, three reached on a walk and later scored.

The rest of the evening Albert Lea was able to string together hits, but was unable to put many runs on the board.

Logan Kortan found his swing again at the plate and had three basehits on the night, including a triple. Anthony Tippett added a pair of doubles and scored twice. The bottom of the order had difficulty as the last three hitters in the Post 56 lineup had one hit combined.

Post 91 starter Mark Harbner was effective, scattering nine hits and allowing five runs in five innings. Albert Lea had its chances, but Harbner was able to successfully work out of jams in the second, third and fifth innings relatively unscathed.

While the bottom third of the lineup struggled for Post 56, Austin’s bottom third was busy scoring. Brady Klingfus had two hits, drew two walks and scored four times on the night. Dylan Monson also added two runs.

But the biggest night belonged to Duell Higbe who drove in six runs on five hits. He also scored twice. Leadoff hitter Andrew Orcutt went 2-for-3 with two walks and scored four times while also driving in a run.

Austin 17, Albert Lea 5, 5 innings

Austin – 3 5 4 2 3 – 17 13 0

Albert Lea – 0 2 2 0 1 – 5 9 1

WP – Mark Harbner 5 IP, 9 H, 0 BB, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 K

LP – Jordan Hanson 2 2/3 IP, 7 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 8 BB, 1 K

LP – Jordan Hanson 2 1/3 IP, 7 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 8 BB, 1 K