The Rochester A's opened the American Legion baseball playoffs with a strong pitching performance in a 5-0 win over Austin/Albert Lea.
Ross Luinenburg pitched 8 2/3 innings of shut-out ball for the A's in a First District Division I first round game played at Century High School.
"Luinenburg was outstanding, we put the ball in play and we made the plays," said A's coach Jordan Kangas. "Josh Newman made a couple nice plays at second."
The A's are the No. 3 seed in the tournament and Austin/Albert Lea is No. 6.
Riese Zmolek led the A's 11-hit attack going 2-for-4 with run-scoring hits in the fourth and fifth innings. Jordan Jasik went 3-for-5 for Rochester.
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The A's play next at 4 p.m. Thursday at Riverland Community College in Austin against No. 2 Owatonna or No. 7 Faribault.
A's 5, Austin/Albert Lea 0
Austin/Albert Lea #000#000#000#—#0#6#4
Rochester A's #000#121#01x#—#5#11#1
Austin/Albert Lea:Ethan Horstmann 2-for-4; Gabe Kasak 2-for-4. LP: Steven Clennon 8 IP.
Rochester A's:Nicholas Pearson 2-for-4, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 R; Jordan Jasik 3-for-5, 1 R; Joshua Newman 1-for-4, 1 R; Riese Zmolek 2-for-4, 2 RBI; Tyler Gathman 2-for-3, 2 2B, 1 R. WP: Ross Luinenburg 8.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 5 K; Nicholas Smith .1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
