Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm VFW Gold’s Kaden Larson fires a throw to home plate from left field during a VFW baseball doubleheader with Marshall on Tuesday at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — Josh Kroft held New Ulm VFW Gold bats to just three hits and Marshall scored the only run of the game in the top of the first as Marshall shut out New Ulm 1-0 in the second game of a doubleheader at Mueller Park.

The win completed a sweep of VFW Gold as they downed New Ulm 5-2 in the opener.

Kroft struck out eight and did not walk a batter.

Zach Riederer took the loss in Game 2. He went 3 1/3 innings and allowed just that first-inning run. Matt Seidl pitched shutout ball in relief of Riederer.

Cody Serbus had two of New Ulm’s hits, with Lucas Suess adding a single.

“We did not much going offensively in that first game,” New Um coach Collin Helget said. “Matt Seidl stepped up pitching-wise and put up a bunch of zeroes for us. He has not pitched for us this year, but he did well. And this weekend we played a lot of games and used up a lot of pitching and we had some tender arms tonight. I asked Zach to give me a few innings.”

The only run of the game came in that first inning when Coby Brownlee was hit by a pitch and scored on a Braxton Koester single.

In the opener, New Ulm stranded 12 runners on base and Marshall’s first three hitters in their lineup combined for seven of its nine hits and drove in all five runs in the win.

Levi Franta took the loss for New Ulm, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing all five runs. He fanned six.

Adam Wiltscheck had three hits for New Ulm, with Kaden Larson adding two.

“They hit the ball well in that game, but we had enough hits (11) to win a baseball game, but we did not get that timely hit,” Helget said.

New Ulm tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Logan Mielke walked. A wild pitch, a passed ball and a Wiltscheck single cut the lead to 2-1. Wiltscheck scored on a Lucas Suess single.

Marshall added a run in the fifth and two more in the top of the seventh.

Helget believes his team is tired mentally and physically right now.

“We have been playing a lot of baseball here, especially in the last week,” he said. “We have played six games over four days. We knew that June was going to be tough with the small window for the games. We play Thursday in Mankato and then we will be off until next Tuesday.”

New Ulm is 9-7.