Albany uses small ball, well-rounded baseball in close loss to Foley

ALBANY — The Albany baseball team came into Friday's game with a seven-game winning streak and some confidence with a well-rounded team.

The Huskies took on undefeated and top-ranked Foley in Avon. These two teams played each other earlier in the season as the Falcons came out with a 10-0 win.

This time, Albany played some small ball to create runs or stop their opponent's runs. The game needed extra innings and Foley ended up with the 4-2 victory in nine innings.

"I think we made some improvements," said Albany's head coach Al Amdahl. "They're a good team and No. 1 in the section and conference for a reason."

Early on, Albany committed a couple of errors and Foley took advantage with a run in the first and second innings to take a 2-0 lead.

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After those two innings, the Huskies took a deep breath and focused on playing their game of baseball. The players were talking in the dugout about minimizing errors and focusing on one at-bat at a time.

That mentality showed in the third and fourth innings because the errors stopped and they generated some offense.

The scoring started with Brandon Holm connecting on an RBI double and scoring Tanner Reis to make it a 2-1 game in the bottom of the third inning.

Albany was threatening in the fourth inning to tie the game up, but Foley's pitcher, Logan Winkelman, was lights out for eight innings.

Logan Harren opened up the bottom of the fourth by reaching first base due to an error by the pitcher. He advanced to second base on a wild throw over the first baseman's head.

Carter Birr came up and placed a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Harren to third base with one out. Devin Hansen came up after Birr and looked down to Amdahl for the signs.

As the ball was releasing from the pitcher's hand, Hansen squared up for a bunt and put the ball right in front of home plate. The runner from third was already running home and scored the tying run.

"As the weather heated up, (the bats) have picked up too," Amdahl said.

But it wasn't only the offense that played small ball as the Albany defense used that aspect of the game to keep it tied at 2-2.

In the third inning with a Foley runner racing home, Peyton Krumrei threw him out from left field to end a threat for the Falcons. Birr ended another threat in the fourth inning with a catch in center field that started a double play. After the catch, threw out the runner at second base, who couldn't get back in time.

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In the fifth inning, the Huskies showed a well-executed relay from the outfield to throw out a runner at third base. The Foley batter hit the ball to the right field fence and Noah Voz threw it to the cut off man, Caden Sand. Then, Sand threw a bullet to Holm at third to get the runner out.

The final big play came in the eighth inning as both teams were looking to take that lead.

With runners on first and third and one out, the ball was hit to Albany's third baseman who threw the ball home to get the runner at the plate. This kept the game tied at 2-2 and gave the Huskies an opportunity to win in the bottom of the inning.

Albany faced off against one of the best pitchers not only in Central Minnesota, but potentially the entire state. Winkelman will be playing Division I baseball at the University of South Carolina Upstate.

"The bats have heated up a little bit," Amdahl said. "Of course, we haven't seen pitching like this kid all year. He's Division I for a reason."

Winkelman ended the day with 14 strikeouts in eight innings. Albany's pitching saw some strong outings by Blake Winkels and Holm. Winkels started the game and threw four innings giving up two unearned runs and striking out two batters.

Holm came in for another four innings and gave up zero runs and struck out five batters. Carter Birr threw the last inning in the ninth and gave up the final two runs.

Amdahl said he's been happy with the pitching staff for the Huskies, and it seems like every pitcher is starting to get in a groove halfway through the season.

He's noticed better plate approaches and finding the right pitch to swing at with every at-bat.

"We've had some good pitching and we got good outings here today from our guys," Amdahl said. "We've got five or six good arms... We've been playing some good ball and we hope to get back on track here next week."

Albany drops to 9-4 with this loss, but the Huskies have a tough couple of weeks before the section seed meeting. The Section 6-2A field is stacked with talent from the top team, Foley, to the last team, Cathedral.

The Huskies have six games left and Amdahl hopes to get in every game because he believes that one missed game could bring a team from hosting a first-round game to playing on the road.

Albany will have four games next week starting off with a road game at Eden Valley-Watkins at 7 p.m. Monday. Then, the Huskies return home at 5 p.m. Tuesday to play Zimmerman before heading to Mora at 5 p.m. Thursday. The final game of the week will be a home game against Sauk Centre at 7 p.m. Friday.

Brian Mozey is the high school sports reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-255-8772 or bmozey@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianMozey.

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Albany shows well-rounded baseball in close loss to Foley