Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Legion Blue’s T.J. Sweere lays down a bunt during Blue’s loss to Chaska in the Upper Midwest Classic on Friday at Johnson Park in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Despite having an 0-3 record heading into Saturday’s final game in the Upper Midwest Classic, New Ulm Legion Blue has played well and nearly pulled one off Friday morning.

Blue lost Friday’s opening game 3-2 at Mueller Park despite leading 2-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning. A two-out double scored two runs, giving Brandon Valley (S.D.) a 3-2 win.

In the second game, Blue hung tough early on but errors got the best of them as Chaska pulled away with an 8-0 win at Johnson Park.

Luke Scheid took the loss in the second game, giving up five runs in 4 2/3 innings. New Ulm had only two hits in that contest.

“We faced a lot of tough competition in this tournament, we did really well the first two games,” Blue coach Ed Tietel said. “We had a little bit of a hiccup [on Friday morning] but I thought it was impressive and it kind of shows how far we can go.”

Blue was never able to get anything going offensively in the second game. Chaska scored three times in the top of the third, two runs coming off of a double by Jacob Goraczkowski to put Chaska ahead 2-0. An RBI double with two outs scored Goraczkowski.

Chaska added to the lead in the fourth inning, scoring twice more. Reid Young had a solo home run with two outs and Chaska scored a second run on a bases-loaded walk.

Errors doomed New Ulm in the seventh as Chaska scored three more times. Chaska took advantage of three New Ulm errors in that inning and got RBIs from Young and Riley Swenson.

Tyler Walls took the loss in the first game.

Shane Esser and T.J. Sweere had New Ulm’s hits.

New Ulm plays at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Essig.