Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Farmington first baseman Alex MAck jumps to catch the ball as New Ulm VFW Gold’s Alex Hillesheim reaches first safely Sunday at Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

MANKATO — New Ulm VFW Gold did the improbable in dramatic fashion to secure a return trip to state.

After beating lone-unbeaten Farmington 5-3 to force a second game in the District 2 finals on Sunday at Franklin Rogers Ballpark in Mankato, Mark Schommer delivered a solid performance on the mound to set up a game-winning RBI single from Mason Cox to score T.J. Sweere and give New Ulm Gold the 2-1 win in the bottom of the 10th inning.

It was a fitting end to a dramatic tournament for Gold (27-14-1), which needed a walk-off win against Shakopee to stay alive in the winner’s bracket on Friday. Cox drove in the game-winning run on Friday, so Sunday’s situation wasn’t any different.

“It’s just like the first, I felt the approach in the same situation — first and second needed to get that runner up and we needed to pick them up,” Cox said. “I felt confident. At first I felt nervous, but I wanted to do it this time.”

New Ulm avenged a 4-2 loss to Farmington in the winner’s bracket finals on Saturday, which required it to beat Shakopee again to advance to Sunday. New Ulm got the two wins it needed to return to the VFW state tournament, but it was no easy task.

“It’s very tough; against a solid team like that, they came at it with all they got and we came at it,” Cox said. “It came down to the pitching duel and then I felt like we wanted it more at the end.”

Farmington made New Ulm starter Nolan Drill work on the mound, patiently sitting on pitches and chopping away to drive his pitch count higher. Drill had 62 pitches after three complete innings, but managed to get through four complete to earn the win.

Aaron Portner pitched three innings of relief with a slim lead to earn the save, holding Farmington to just two hits and no runs.

In that first game, Gold teed off on Farmington starter Luke Kost in the bottom of the second, scoring three runs on three hits while leaving the bases loaded after Tyler McClure came in to clean up the mess. Kost got the loss in 1 1/3 innings, while McClure allowed one earned run on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings of work.

Mark Schommer engaged in a pitcher’s duel with Jake Eiffert in Game 2, during which the two teams found offensive opportunities hard to come by.

Farmington managed to score in the top of the fifth thanks to an RBI double by Brett Haugen. However, New Ulm tied the game 1-1 with an RBI single by Braden Zimmerman that drove in Jaden Domeier from second base.

Eiffert sat after seven complete innings, but Schommer stayed on the mound for 10 full innings with his pitch count totalling 121.

The extra work was a lot for Schommer, who tore his PCL in the back of his knee during the school ball season at New Ulm Cathedral in late May.

Schommer has made three appearances on the mound, but has not thrown more than 59 pitches. He said his longest appearance innings-wise was 3 1/3 in the team’s win against Shakopee on Friday, during which he threw 29 pitches.

So what kept Schommer in the game for as long as he was in there?

“Just the love of the game and the love of the team,” Schommer said. “These guys are great. They deserve to win.”

Ultimately, Schommer was effective. He tallied eight strikeouts compared to just one walk in 10 complete innings pitched. He allowed one earned run on eight scattered hits.

“It’s Mark, he wanted to do all he could and it was awesome,” Cox said. “He threw amazing today. We’ve been getting him in slowly earlier in the year and he really wanted it today.”

Alex Mach took the loss for Eiffert after giving up the game-winning RBI single to Cox with one out in the bottom of the 10th.

New Ulm will next focus on the VFW state tournament, which will take place from Aug. 9-13 in Willmar. As the winner of District 2, New Ulm Gold is slated to play the winner of District 9.

“If we just play our game, get our bats going a little bit more than today hopefully… but if we get our bats going, we’ve got solid pitching,” Schommer said. “Our pitching depth is so deep that we could pitch anybody at just about any time and be pretty confident that we’d get a W.”

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Farmington 110 010 0 — 3 6 1

NU Gold 130 001 x — 5 9 0

Kost, McClure (2) and Jasper; Drill, Portner (5) and J Seidl.

W – Drill (N) 4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 81 pitches

L – Kost (F) 1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 32 pitches

Sv – Portner (N) 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 40 pitches

Leading hitters – Farmington: Polson 1-3 1 RBI, Kost 1-3 1 R, Liebers 2-3; NU Gold: Hillesheim 2-3 1 RBI 1 R 2B, Zimmerman 2-3 3 RBI 1 K, Giefer 2-4 1 R.

Farmington 000 010 000 0 — 1 8 1

NU Gold 000 001 000 1 — 2 7 2

Eiffert, Mach (8) and Jasper; Schommer and J Seidl.

W – Schommer (N) 10 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 121 pitches

L – Mach (F) 2 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 52 pitches

ND – Eiffert (N) 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 80 pitches

Leading hitters – Farmington: Haugen 2-4 1 RBI 1 K 2B; NU Gold: Domeier 1-5 1 R, Zimmerman 1-4 1 RBI 1 BB 1 K, Cox 3-5 1 RBI.