Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm High School shortstop Carter Lang throws to first for an out during the Eagles’ home game with Rocori on Friday at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Eagles head baseball coach Kevin Briggs called his team’s performance Friday afternoon their best outing of the season.

Jaden Drill held Rocori to three early runs and then recorded the final out of the game as the Eagles topped state-ranked Rocori 5-4 at Mueller Park in a nonconference game.

The game was moved from Johnson Park because Johnson Park was deemed unplayable because of excessive rainfall.

Games Saturday at 11 a.m. at 1:30 p.m. will now also be at Mueller Park.

Drill went the distance on Friday, striking out six and allowing five hits as the Eagles improved to 8-7 on the season.

Hunter Fuchs took the loss for Rocori (6-2).

Maddox Mortensen, Drill, Ayden Jensen and Jaden Miller each had two hits as New Ulm outhit Rocori 10-5.

“That was our best outing of the year by far,” Briggs said. “Rocori really came (early) and swung the bats well, but we swung the bats well and we ended up outhitting them so that is a credit to ourselves.”

Rocori, who will play Red Wing at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mueller Park, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a Brady Blattner sacrifice.

The Eagles, who will play Red Wing today at around 1:30 p.m. at Mueller Park, matched that when Jack Albrecht walked, stole second and raced home on a Drill RBI single.

The No. 7-ranked Spartans plated two runs in the top of the second on a Luke Van Erp sacrifice fly and a Jack Spanier RBI single.

Jaden Miller’s leadoff infield single in the second sparked a two-run inning for the Eagles.

A Ryan Wiltscheck sacrifice bunt moved him to second. A Taylor Hansen base hit placed Miller on third.

Miller then scored on a fielder’s choice. That came when Jace Schaefer laid down a squeeze bunt that was fielded by Fuchs. Fuchs fielded the ball cleanly but his underhand toss to catcher Sam Zeiher was not in time to retire a sliding Miller at home.

A Mortensen single and an Albrecht sacrifice fly knotted the game a 3-3.

New Ulm grabbed a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the third when Ayden Jensen doubled. An RBI single from Miller scored courtesy runner Ben Hohensee.

That ended up being all of the runs that the right-handed Drill needed.

“JD settled in and got better as the game went along,” Briggs said. “We had one error on the board, but we ran the bases well and played a really good game.”

Briggs did say that his pitchers this season seem to have shaky starts but then seem to settle in as the game progresses.

“That is something that we need to talk about,” Briggs said. “The same thing happened (Thursday at Waseca) to Ben Hohensee — we do not have our best stuff early, so maybe we need to change our preparation. But both Ben and Jaden were able to settle in.”

The Eagles added what would be a much-needed insurance run in the fifth on a Miller sacrifice fly.

That run became important as Rocori cut the lead to 5-4 in the top of the seventh and had two runners on base before Drill fielded a comebacker off of the bat of Blattner for the final out.

Briggs said that Carter Lang will start today against Red Wing.

“I am proud of our team — Red Wing today is a team coming from the Big Nine. They are a good team, but that is why we invited them.”