Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Legion Gold’s Mark Schommer fires to first for an out during Gold’s first game of the 2019 DI Minnesota State American Legion Baseball Tournament against Cold Spring in Cold Spring on Thursday afternoon.

COLD SPRING — While New Ulm Gold wasted little time getting on the board Thursday in their first game of the 2019 DI Minnesota State American Legion Baseball Tournament, their second game of the day saw them take a little bit longer to get things going at the plate.

But regardless of how the two games differed offensively, both games ended in victory for Gold.

After downing Cold Spring by a score of 10-0 in six innings, Gold moved on to scrape out a 4-1 comeback win against the St. Cloud Chutes later in the day, moving them on in the winner’s bracket.

New Ulm will next play at 6 p.m. Friday against Edina at Cold Spring Baseball Park. Edina advanced in the winner’s bracket after an 8-1 win over Buffalo and a 2-0 win over Anoka.

Against Cold Spring, New Ulm’s Mark Schommer got the win in 3 1/3 innings, keeping his pitch count to 44 before being relieved by Cole Backer, who pitched the final 2 2/3 innings. Schommer gave up two hits in the second inning and hit a pair of batters, but he worked around the trouble and ended the day with a pair of strikeouts.

“I was happy, I had most of my accuracy,” Schommer said after the win over Cold Spring. “There were a couple times where mechanics went awry and I was a little wild.”

Backer struck out four and gave up four hits in relief.

Brady Klehr took the loss for Cold Spring in five innings, giving up two earned runs on nine hits with four strikeouts.

Gold took advantage of a trio of early Cold Spring errors and added five hits in the first inning to jolt out to a 5-0 lead after one. Chris Knowles and Mason Cox each added an RBI single in the inning, while two runs scored on errors and Cox scored from third on a double steal.

Getting that run support right away allowed Schommer to play around with his pitches a bit more.

“As a pitcher, once I get that lead, it’s like, ‘Okay, now it’s all right if I give up a little bit of runs,’ it’s more of a pride thing because I want to keep my ERA down,” Schommer said. “But also you want to keep your team in the game and cruising through. You don’t want to get too cute, but you can miss a couple more pitches, you don’t have to be spot on all the time.”

An RBI single in the second inning by Braden Zimmerman scored Jaden Domeier, who singled earlier, for a 6-0 Gold lead. Aaron Portner doubled to deep center to lead off the third inning and later scored on an error by the shortstop. After a pair of scoreless innings, New Ulm ended things in the sixth after a walk-off single by Knowles scored Hunter Ranweiler from third, who singled earlier in the inning. Josh Seidl also singled in a run in the inning earlier and ended up scoring on an error.

Knowles was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored for Gold, while Zimmerman and Seidl each had two hits and an RBI apiece. Hunter Ranweiler also had two hits and scored two runs.

In Gold’s second game of the day, Portner got the complete-game win, allowing just three hits and one walk for an earned run while striking out five. Tanner Neu took the loss for St. Cloud in six innings of work, giving up two earned runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three.

While Gold dominated right out of the gate in their first game of the day, they had to battle back in their second game against St. Cloud after the Chutes took an early 1-0 lead in the first after an RBI triple by Jackson Baustian-Jangula. After leaving runners stranded in the first four innings, Gold woke up in the top of the fifth and got a huge two-run double by Cole Ranweiler to give them a 2-1 lead that they never relinquished.

Domeier led off that fifth inning with a double before being moved over to second on a sac bunt by Seidl. Hunter Ranweiler was then hit by a pitch before Knowles was walked intentionally to fill the bases and create a force at any bag. But Cole Ranweiler’s double certainly made the Chutes pay.

New Ulm added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh on a two-run double by Knowles to left-center. That double first scored Hunter Ranweiler, who walked, and then Zimmerman, who reached on an error.

Domeier had two of Gold’s five hits against St. Cloud, while Knowles, Hunter Ranweiler and Cole Ranweiler rounded out the hit column for New Ulm with a hit apiece.