Madelia lost 1-0 against Mankato National early in the day, then 9-6 against Maple Grove at Searles Ballpark later in the evening in its first two games of the Junior Upper Midwest Classic.

Madelia struggled to throw strikes in the second game, putting 13 batters on base by walk and going through four pitchers.

“It was just an off day,” Madelia assistant coach Jimmy Kiefer said. “That’s the first time we’ve had a really tough game where we didn’t throw strikes. We walked six guys in one inning. It’s tough to win when you do that. I though the boys did a nice job — we told them at the end, ‘You can’t control what’s happened in the game up to this point. We have two innings left, lets try to win these two innings.’ We got it, 4-2. It’s just, when you walk six in an inning and give up four free runs, we had to get deep into our pitching rotation, and we weren’t able to overcome that. But I’m not worried about it. The boys are going to bounce back from it [Saturday] with a good effort.”

Tony Zaleski took the loss for Madelia, striking out five while allowing three earned runs on one hit and six walks in 2 2/3 innings. At the plate, Noel Davilla was 2 for 3 with two runs scored while Tate Becker was 1 for 2 with two RBIs and a run scored. Zach Jacobs and Kyle Pietsch each had a hit and an RBI.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Madelia’s Dalton Tatro connects with a pitch during a junior legion baseball game against Maple Grove during the Junior Upper Midwest Classic Tournament Friday at Searles Ballpark.

Madelia struck first in the first inning when Becker reached home on an error. It scored again in the third with a sacrifice fly by Becker bringing home Davilla for a 2-0 lead.

After drizzling throughout the game, a downpour started in the bottom of the third inning. While Zaleski initially maintained a strong presence on the mound, retiring the first two batters of the inning including his fifth strikeout of the game, a field maintenance break interrupted his momentum. After the break, Zaleski issued four straight walks and was called for a balk, scoring one runner. Evan Coil came in and walked two more batters as Maple Grove scored four runs in the inning.

Maple Grove increased its lead in the fifth, getting three runs across on three hits, a walk and an error. Madelia finally got back on the board in the sixth, with Jacobs scoring on a hit by Pietsch, but Maple Grove came right back with two more runs in the bottom of the inning to make it a 9-3 game.

Madelia rallied in the top of the seventh after Maple Grove issued four straight walks of its own. Braydon Grev scored on one of the walks, and Davilla scored on a sacrifice fly by Jacobs. Zaleski scored a third run on another walk, but a groundout ended the inning and cut the comeback short.

Madelia will play Hutchinson in the final game of pool play 10 a.m. Saturday at Johnson Park.