Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Legion Gold’s Andrew Peters dives into second ahead of the ball as Mankato American second baseman Alex Turner waits for the ball Friday in Sleepy Eye. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

SLEEPY EYE — After a few adjustments, New Ulm Gold was able to settle in and tee off.

No. 2-seeded Gold pinned four unanswered runs in eliminating No. 6-seeded Mankato American with a 7-4 win in the Division I, Substate 2 Legion baseball tournament on Friday in Sleepy Eye.

New Ulm (19-10) trailed 4-3 before tying the game in the top of the sixth thanks to one of four Mankato errors. From there, New Ulm got a big RBI double from Andrew Peters before Mankato’s fourth error of the game allowed two more runs to score.

“We were facing a little slower of a pitcher, it just took us a little bit to adjust to him,” catcher Hunter Ranweiler said. “We kind of struggle hitting slower pitchers. Once we got adjusted to it, we put the ball in play just like normal.”

Nick Fischer got the start for Gold and had a good rhythm going for much of his outing. However, he hit a big snag in the bottom of the fifth when he allowed three-straight RBI singles that gave American (11-17) a 4-3 lead.

Fischer had trouble hitting his spots in that inning, unable to work his way out of getting behind in the count on three separate occasions. This set up the three-straight RBI singles before he was finally able to get out of it with his fifth strikeout.

“I go out there and ask him some questions, try to get his mind off the game — maybe ask him what he had to eat earlier or something, just get his mind off how he’s doing,” Ranweiler said of Fischer. “I wouldn’t say he was pitching a bad game, he just wasn’t his normal self.”

A.J. Lassas came in and caused trouble for American, allowing just two hits in four scoreless innings with one walk and four strikeouts to get him the win on the mound.

Nate Kleist got the loss after reaching his pitch limit, having left the game after giving up the run that broke the 4-4 tie. Kleist was tagged with six runs, three earned on eight hits in 7 2/3 innings pitched.

Eight different players notched hits for New Ulm, including two-hit performances from J.T. Hoffmann and Jordan Fischer.

New Ulm advances to the final day of the Substate 2 tournament.

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NUG 000 211 030 — 7 10 1

MA 100 030 000 — 4 7 4

N Fischer, Lassas (6) and Ranweiler; Kleist, Melvin (8) and Gunther, Witte (9).

W – Lassas (N) 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 49 pitches

L – Kleist (M) 7 2/3 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 123 pitches

ND – N Fischer (N) 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 88 pitches

Leading hitters – NUG: Hoffmann 2-5 1 R, Wellmann 1-5 1 RBI 1 R, J Fischer 2-5 1 R, Peters 1-3 1 RBI 2 R 1 HP 2B; MA: Beckman 2-4 2 RBI 2 K.