Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s David Wilfahrt dives back into third as a throw gets by Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Brandon Schmitz on Thursday in the first game of a Tomahawk Conference baseball doubleheader at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie and salvage the second game of a Tomahawk Conference baseball doubleheader with New Ulm Cathedral on Thursday at Mueller Park.

The Knights won the second game 5-3, while the Greyhounds took the opener 5-2.

Brandon Schmitz earned his first varsity pitching win for the Knights (3-2) in the second game.

Schmitz scattered seven hits and struck out six in going the distance.

Isaiah Rieser was saddled with the loss in relief of starter Levi Franta in Game 2. Franta pitched four innings and yielded one run on one hit.

Schmitz led the Knights’ offense with two hits, including a double. Kaleb Wait also doubled for the Knights.

Sam Knowles and Justin Berg each had two hits for the Greyhounds.

“Brandon did a great job for us — I think he hit a batter — but he threw strikes,” Knights head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We missed some opportunities to score some runs early but got some clutch hits late and then got the three outs to get the split today.”

Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said that Franta threw well in the start.

“We battled through some adversity late when we gave up some runs, but we battled back at the plate late,” he said.

St. Mary’s broke a 2-2 tie in that sixth inning off of Rieser when Carson Domeier walked and Talan Helget singled. An Owen Weiss sacrifice bunt moved runners up before consecutive two-out doubles from Wait and Schmitz resulted in three runs.

Cathedral came back to cut the lead to 5-3 on a Sam Knowles RBI single before Schmitz ended the game.

In the opener, St. Mary’s scored two runs in the top of the third inning before the Greyhounds plated five runs in the bottom of the fourth on the way to a 5-2 win.

Sam Knowles went the distance for the win. He fanned seven and retired the last 13 Knights batters of the game in a row.

Mark Anderson took the loss for the Knights.

Carson Domeier had two hits for St. Mary’s.

Cathedral had four hits in the game, with all of them coming in that fourth inning that also saw the Knights commit two costly errors.

“We capitalized on their error and we put the ball in play,” Alan Woitas said. “Good things happen when you put the ball in play.”

St. Mary’s scored twice in the third on two-out singles from Jon Petermann, Joey Herzog and Domeier.

But in the fourth, Brody Kirschstein singled and Justin Berg walked. After Anderson recorded a strikeout, David Wilfahrt walked to load the bases. A four-pitch walk to Levi Franta forced in a run.

After another strikeout for the second out, a Rieser base hit tied the game. An error, a Kyle Seidl single and another error added the fifth run of the inning.

That was all that Knowles needed as he did not allow a base runner after the third inning.

“Sam is really good on the mound,” Alan Woitas said. “He has a lot of confidence in all three pitches and attacks the strike zone. He is going to do a nice job for us this year.”