Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke New Ulm’s Cole Ranweiler slides safely into second base on a stolen base attempt on Wednesday during the Section 2AAA baseball game against St. Peter at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — New Ulm High School used a stellar pitching performance along with some early inning runs to open the Section 2AAA tournament with an 8-0 win St. Peter Wednesday afternoon at Mueller Park.

Left-hander Ethan Stade provided the dominating pitching performance for the Eagles.

The senior southpaw went seven innings and scattered five Saints’ hits while striking out 10. He issued only two walks.

Theo Geidd took the loss for St. Peter. He went 2 2/3 innings and was charged with six runs.

Isaiah Miller led the New Ulm offense with two hits and two RBIs.

Caleb Arndt had a two-run double for the Eagles.

New Ulm, now 16-3, will play at 11 a.m. Saturday at Johnson Park against Marshall. Marshall defeated Waconia 11-3.

New Ulm coach Kevin Briggs thought that the fans at the game was what earned the win for the Eagles.

“We got excellent pitching from our ace and he put up a bunch of zeroes (on the scoreboard) and that was good to see.” Briggs said. “The second thing was that we put the pressure on them from the get-go. We scored early. We got a lead and we took it from there.”

New Ulm took a 1-0 lead in the first when Cole Ranweiler singled and stole second. Ranweiler later scored on a Jaden Drill two-out single.

The Eagles, who had two wins in the regular season against the Saints, pushed two more runs across in the second inning.

Sam Keckeisen reached on an infield error and scored when Arndt turned on a 1-2 offering from Geidd and doubled to right, scoring Keckeisen for a 2-0 lead.

Jack Ahlbrecht walked before a Ranweiler sacrifice bunt moved both runners up. A Hunter Sehr groundout scored Arndt for a 3-0 lead.

A St. Peter infield error to start the third inning led to three runs by the Eagles.

Drill, who reached on the error, went to second when Evan Wiltscheck walked.

Both runners moved up on a passed ball. A Miller single scored both runners and Miller came home with the third run of the inning on an Arndt sacrifice fly.

“When you score first good things happen,” Briggs said. “No lead is ever safe in the post-season so you have to keep scoring.”

New Ulm added two more runs in the fifth on a passed ball and a double steal.

Briggs said he will start Keckeisen on Saturday.