Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm starting pitcher T.J. Sweere tosses a pitch during the Eagles’ win against St. Peter Monday at Johnson Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — Baseball coaches stress the importance of timely hitting in games.

Monday afternoon the New Ulm Eagles were outhit by St. Peter 8-7.

But six of the Eagles’ hits came in two innings when they scored a combined six runs and used that to remain unbeaten in Big South Conference play with an 8-3 win over the Saints.

T.J. Sweere got the win for New Ulm (8-2, 7-0). He went 4 1/3 innings and was charged with two runs. Brandon Seidl pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and allowed an unearned run.

Owen Little took the loss for St.Peter (4-4, 2-4). He was saddled with six New Ulm runs in five innings.

Hunter Willmes and Little each had two hits for St.Peter.

Keaton Knaak and Braden Zimmerman each tripled for the Eagles with Andrew Peters and Tyler Roufs each adding a double.

“We started slow tonight,” New Ulm coach Kevin Briggs said. “And against better teams that could come up and bite us. But we were able to catch up in the hit column and put some better balls in play as the game went on.”

The Eagles, who host Waseca at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in a Big South Conference doubleheader beginning at Mueller Park, spotted St. Peter a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on a Tyler Sowden sacrifice fly and an RBI single from Brock Bushaw.

But in the bottom of the inning, New Ulm pieced three hits together and scored three runs.

Hunter Ranweiler got New Ulm’s first hit of the game when he led off with a single. Luke Scheid was hit by a Little offering before Peters stroked a two-run double to center. Peters scored on a triple down the right field line by Knaak.

And in the fifth, the Eagles used that clutch hitting to add three more runs.

Peters walked and raced home on Zimmerman’s triple. A Roufs’ double and a Sam Berg base hit upped the New Ulm lead to 6-2.

“That clutch hitting is what it takes,” Briggs said. “That is the difference between winning and losing. We finally found some balls to the outfield. And Sweere pitched well.”

The right-handed Sweere allowed just two more Saints’ hits after the third inning before yielding to Seidl with one out in the fifth. Seidl allowed an unearned run in the top of the seventh.

New Ulm gave Seidl a bigger cushion in the bottom of the sixth when they scored two runs on two walks, a hit and an error.