SLEEPY EYE — New Ulm VFW Gold continued its dominance in the Northwest Sub-District VFW Baseball Tournament Sunday afternoon in Sleepy Eye.

Gold slammed 12 hits and matched that with 12 runs as they ran past Sleepy Eye 12-2.

Matt Reiger got the win for Gold. He relieved starter Ethan Stade in the third inning.

Reiger was one of four pitchers used by New Ulm in the game as they combined to hold Post 7 to four hits in the contest.

Kadon Strong took the loss for Post 7. He was charged with five runs in three innings of work.

The two runs scored by Sleepy Eye were the first two runs permitted by New Ulm in their three games of the tournament. Gold outscored opponents 49-2 in their three contests.

Mason Cox led Gold bats with four hits and four RBI. Tony Geiger and Teddy Giefer each added two hits with Giefer driving in three runs.

Cox had a double with Giefer adding a seventh inning triple.

Spencer Hoffmann and Nick Labat drove in the Post 7 runs.

Both New Ulm (25-7) and Sleepy Eye (11-12) advance to next weekend’s Second District VFW Tournament at Johnson and Mueller Parks in New Ulm.

Gold wil play Shakopee Thursday at 7 p.m. at Johnson Park while Sleepy Eye takes on Chaska Thursday at Johnson Park at a time yet to be determined.

“We are clicking on all cylinders,” VFW Gold coach Mike Munce said. “I could not ask for anything more out of them this weekend. We hit, pitched and played good defense. We ran the bases well. Everything is coming together at the right time.”

Sleepy Eye coach Brandon Streich felt that his team played OK. “We were kind of short on pitching,” he said. “But we were able to get some guys some innings.That was important to our other pitchers to get some rest before Districts.”

Gold, which scored in every inning, jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first on a Cox RBI double and a Geiger run-scoring single.

New Ulm made it 3-0 in the third when Jace Marotz singled and came around to score on a Hunter Sehr infield single.

Cox’ lead-off single in the third sparked a two-run inning coming on a Marotz walk and Cole Backer being hit by a pitch.

Post 7 used two walks, a base hit and a Labat sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-1.

But Gold scored two runs in each of the next three innings for an 11-2 lead and then made it 12-2 in the seventh on a Geifer triple and a Marotz sacrifice fly.

“We have them focused and ready to go,” Munce said. “We are going to carry that into the District tournament. We have played all year to get them ready for the post-season.”