Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm VFW Silver’s Jordan Maki tries to tag Wayzata’s Cole Seyfort before he gets to the base during Junior Upper Midwest Classic action Saturday at Johnson Park in New Ulm. Seyfert was safe on the play. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — New Ulm VFW Silver struggled again on Saturday, dropping both of their Junior Upper Midwest Classic games.

Silver dropped its first game 8-3 to Luverne.

Tony Geiger picked up the loss for Silver, allowing four runs in two innings. Cole Backer led Silver in Game 1, with a 3-for-4 day at the plate and a run scored.

Silver coach Matt Swanson said that his squad struggled early on against Luverne, allowing all runs to score within the first four innings. He said he was glad to see his team fight back and buckle down in the later innings, but the early eight runs allowed were too much to overcome.

In the second game of the day, Silver was defeated 16-3 by Wayzata in five innings.

Silver starter Jackson Bode took the loss for Silver with six runs allowed on five hits and a walk. He was taken out after a rough first inning and replaced by Backer, who pitched three innings, while allowing five runs, on five hits and two walks.

Silver added two runs in the second inning to cut the deficit to 6-2, led by a two-run double down the right-field line by Cade Bushard. In the fourth inning, things began to get out of hand for Silver.

After a quick first two outs for Backer, a costly error by the shortstop led to three straight Wayzata hits. Wayzata ended the inning up 11-2, scoring five runs on four hits and three errors.

Wayzata added another five runs off of Bushard and Hunter Hulke the following inning on four hits and two wild pitches to end things early.

Hulke and Will Schabert were 2 for 3 for Silver in Game 2. Hulke also added an RBI.

Silver allowed 14 hits, seven walks and four errors in the second game and Swanson said that the pitching and errors were the main reasons for the struggles in the tournament.

“It’s been the takeaway the last few games,” Swanson said. “You walk a lot of guys, you give them extra outs, [then] they’re gonna score runs that way and then you’ve gotta do that to. You’ve gotta score some runs and right now we’re not scoring as many as the other team. Plain and simple.”