A furious rally by the Albert Lea baseball team fell short Saturday in the Section 2AA finals.

The Tigers scored four unanswered runs, but Glencoe Silver Lake held on to win 5-4 at Belle Plaine.

“We tried to come back, and we got some runs back, but we dug ourselves a little too deep of a hole,” said Albert Lea coach Joe Sczublewski.

The Tigers rallied from early deficits in two of three previous postseason games this season. In the Subsection 2AA South semifinals, Albert Lea scored three unanswered runs to beat Tri-City United 3-2. The Tigers repeated the rally on a bigger scale in the subsection finals when they trailed Faribault Academies 5-0 through the second inning and outscored the Cardinals 8-1 in the last five innings.

Tristin Muilenburg — who pitched a gem in the final innings against Faribault Academies with one earned run and one walk in five innings — started on the mound for Albert Lea. He retired two batters in the first 1 1/3 innings but gave up five runs.

Chris Enderson took the mound in relief. He retired six batters in 4 2/3 innings and didn’t give up any runs or walks.

“Chris pitched great for us,” Sczublewski said. “We just stranded too many baserunners. We were short that timely hit to get us over the hump.”

Albert Lea posted eight hits but left nine runners on base.

The Tigers had the momentum and cut their deficit to one run in the bottom of the fifth, but they were held scoreless through the last two innings.

Parker Mullenbach and Wyatt Paulsen led the Tigers at the plate with two hits each.

What’s next?

The section tournament is double elimination after teams get past the first round. Therefore, Albert Lea will fall to the consolation finals to play one of four teams at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Belle Plaine. Watertown-Mayer and Faribault along with Holy Family Catholic and Tri-City United will play in the consolation quarterfinals on Monday. The winners of those games will play in the consolation semifinal at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The winner of that game will play Albert Lea 2 1/2 hours later in the consolation finals.

If Albert Lea wins the consolation bracket, it will get a rematch against Glencoe-Silver Lake. However, coach Sczublewski said the Tigers would have to beat the Panthers twice to advance to state.