Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Ethan Stade delivers a pitch during a Tomahawk East League amateur baseball game against the Essig Bluejays Wednesday at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM — Ethan Stade struck out 18 Essig batters in the first seven innings and New Ulm plated three runs in the bottom of the seventh as the New Ulm Brewers won their ninth straight game with a 6-2 win over the Essig Bluejays Wednesday night in a Tomahawk East League amateur baseball game at Johnson Park.

Stade, got the win, with Adam Slander pitching the eight and Wade French pitching the ninth as New Ulm improved to 8-2 in the TEL.

Eric Scheibel took the loss for Essig, now 3-8. He went seven innings and was charged with five runs on eight hits.

Hunter Ranweiler led the Brewers with three hits, with J.T. Hoffmann adding two hits with a double and triple.

“That (18 strikeouts) is the most that I have ever thrown,” said the left-hander Stade. “I was able to settle right in — I did not miss too many pitches.”

Stade went 3-0 on the first batter of the game before coming back and striking out Mason Sellner.

Stade would follow that up by striking out the next eight batters for nine strikeouts in three innings.

The Brewers, who host Gibbon on Wednesday, July 5 at Johnson Park at 7:30 in a makeup game, scored twice in the bottom of the first.

Hoffmann tripled and scored on a Hunter Ranweiler double. Ranweiler then raced home on a two-out triple off of the bat of Andrew Peters for a 2-0 lead.

That lead held up before Essig cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth when Jake Stadick got the first hit of the game for Essig on a bloop double down the right-field line. Hunter Sehr singled before Stadick scored on a double play.

Essig would tie the contest 2-2 when Stadick scored on an infield throwing error in the top of the sixth.

And while Stade was keeping Essig in check, Scheibel had the Brewers bats shut down since the first inning, he allowing just four more hits in the next five innings.

“But our bats came alive when we needed them,” Stade said about the Brewers offense that had scored 95 runs in their last eight games. “We have quality hitters one through nine.”

The Brewers plated three runs in that seventh inning when Colton Schaefer singled and stole second. Jace Schafer reached on an error before a Cole Ranweiler sacrifice fly made it a 3-2 game.

Schafer stole second and scored on a Hoffmann double with Hoffmann later scoring on an error.

Stade left in the top of that seventh inning because of pitch count.

“I knew that I was at about 100 pitches before the seventh and I only wanted to throw around 85,” said Stade.

The Brewers scored their last run of the game in the eighth on three hit batsman and an error.