NEW ULM – If the New Ulm Brewers hope to qualify for the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament, they have to win Saturday night in Springfield and get some help for a potential playoff game on Sunday.

Lamberton lefthander Alex Gerdes held Brewers bats to just six hits in his 7 2/3 innings of work and Long Sox bats pounded out 14 hits and Lamberton remained unbeaten in the 2C playoffs with a 9-4 win over New Ulm Wednesday night at Johnson Park.

Gerdes fanned seven in his stint on the mound and waked three.

Cooper Forbrook took the loss for the Brewers, now 2-2 in the playoffs. He was tagged with five runs in his 4 2/3 innings of work.

Isaac Jenniges led Lamberton with three hits with Colby Pack, Tyler Reiner and Blake Altermatt each collecting two hits.

Pack and Isaac Jenniges each drove in two runs. Pack had a solo home run.

Zach Hoffmann, Wade French and Cory Ranweiler each had two hits for the Brewers who were out-hit 12-8 in the game.

Hoffmann had a triple and a solo home run with Cory Ranweiler adding a double.

For the Brewers and manager Al Flor, the loss was due to a pitching staff that has been struggling lately.

“We have not been able to get ahead hitters,” he said. “We have been walking to many (eight in the game with six of them scoring). That cannot happen – the defense goes into a daze. We made two errors and they hurt too.”

Lamberton took a 2-0 lead in the third when Pack tattooed a 1-2 offering from Forbrook over the fence in left field. Tyler Reiner walked and went to second on a Blake Altermatt sacrifice bunt. Landon Erickson coaxed a walk before a wild pitch followed by an infield single from Isaac Jenniges.

The Brewers cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning when Cory Ranweiler doubled and scored on a Judd Davis base hit.

But Lamberton took over the game in the fifth and sixth innings scoring three runs in the fifth and two in the sixth. In the fifth it was a combination of an error and RBI singles from Neil Eichten and Pack that ended Forbrook’s night.

Adam Slander relieved Forbrook and permitted two runs in the sixth on another Isaac Jenniges single and a squeeze bunt from Derrick Jenniges.

The Brewers scored twice in the bottom of the sixth. Garrett Fischer singled and scored on a Hoffmann triple. Hoffmann raced home on a Jason Shaul groundout.

But the Long Sox scored two more runs in the top of the seventh off of Slander on two walls and singles from Blake Altermatt and Erickson.

Hoffmann’s two-out solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning accounted for the final New Ulm run of the game.

“I think that our hitting will come around but right now I am concerned about our pitching,” said Flor. “We have to beat Springfield Saturday (in Springfield at 7:30 p.m.) just to have a chance to play on Sunday just to get into the state tournament.”