Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke New Ulm Legion Gold’s Jaden Drill tags out a Willmar player prior to him reaching first base during Friday night’s American Legion baseball game at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM — Four New Ulm pitchers combined to hold Willmar to two hits and Gold blanked Willmar 6-0 Friday in American Legion baseball.

Ethan Stade got the win for Gold, who finishes the regular season at 19-6. Stade, Sam Keckeisen, Hunter Sehr and Tony Geiger all saw mound action.

Sam Etterman took the loss for Willmar.

Cole Ranweiler paced Gold with three hits, including a double. He had three RBIs.

Josh Giefer and Jack Ahlbrecht each had two hits.

Gold coach Chris Peters said that he was going to throw multiple pitchers to get ready for the Sub-State 2 playoffs that start Wednesday in Sleepy Eye.

“Every one of our pitchers came in and threw strikes,” Peters said. “And we two-hit a nice team again. Willmar’s high school team was good and their pitchers threw hard — he (Etterman) was a nice lefty and they had solid bats. This is the second game that we have held them. In our first game we held them to three hits.”

New Ulm got the only run that it would need in the third inning when it took a 1-0 lead.

Ahlbrecht led off with a single, took second on a Jackson Bode groundout and ended up at third on a Hunter Sehr groundout. He scored on a Ranweiler infield single.

Gold, who plays Fairmont at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of sub-state action, used four hits in the fifth inning to score five runs.

Ahlbrecht reached on an infield single and Jackson Bode followed with a double. Sehr reached on an infield error to load the bases.

Ranweiler followed with a two-run double. Carter Lang reached on a walk before Jaden Drill coaxed a walk to bring in Sehr. A fielder’s choice and a Giefer single closed out the scoring in the inning.

Peters said that Ranweiler has been the leader of Gold this season.

“But we have guys like Jackson Bode and Hunter Sehr setting the table for him.”

New Ulm was seeded second behind Mankato National, who won the Gopher Classic this year.

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