NEW ULM — This time a late-inning rally by the New Ulm Junior Legion Gold fell short in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic on Sunday.

Down 8-4 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, New Ulm plated two runs before Mankato (East) American reliever Alex Fast got the final two outs of the game with the bases loaded as East downed the Junior Legion 8-6 Sunday morning at Johnson Park.

New Ulm had rallied for late-inning wins in their first two games.

Keaton Wojcik got the win for Mankato, going the first five innings and allowing four runs.

Cohen Domeier took the loss for New Ulm.

Kolton Kolbinger had three hits for Mankato.

Kyle Albrecht and Hunter Larson each had two hits for New Ulm, with Tanner Backer driving in two runs.

“We just made too many mistakes today,” New Ulm head coach Mike Anderson said. “We gave them too many free rides.”

New Ulm had jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second.

Zach Hubbard reached on a fielder’s choice and Larson singled. Hubbard scored on a throwing error. A fielder’s choice preceded a two-run single from Backer, with Backer scoring on a Parker Neubauer double.

But in the top of the third inning, American took advantage of two New Ulm errors and five hits to take a 5-4 lead.

“We had errors all the way around,” Anderson said. “And some of them did not even end up in the [score] book.”

Mankato tacked on single runs in the fifth sixth and seventh innings to take an 8-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh,

Gold scored twice in the seventh on an Albrecht single and a fielder’s choice.

“This was a game that we should have won,” Anderson said. “And honestly that was the best pitcher that we have seen all year and we handled him well. He pitched the section [2AAA] championship game for East and pitched in the state tournament. [Wojick] is a pretty high-end left-handed arm — we were not overmatched. We had too many free bags, too many errors [five]. Whoever makes the least amount of mistakes wins.”

Junior Legion Gold, now 12-3, hosts Sleepy Eye Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Johnson Park.

Below are the final scores from the tournament.

Friday, June 28

New Ulm Jr. Legion 3, Luverne 1

Mankato West 3, Wayzata 2

Owatonna 2, Harrisburg 1

Alexandria 5, Sleepy Eye 2

New Ulm VFW Silver 5, Osseo 2

Mankato East 1, Madelia 0

Hutchinson 14, Maple Grove 13

Prior Lake 15, Omaha Gross 5

Sleepy Eye 13, Osseo 1

Owatonna 4, Wayzata 0

Mankato West 10, Harrisburg 3

New Ulm VFW Silver 7, Alexandria 4

Luverne 9, Omaha Gross 4

Maple Grove 9, Madelia 6

Mankato East 11, Hutchinson 6

New Ulm Jr. Legion 4, Prior Lake 3

Saturday, June 29

Mankato West 19, Owatonna 1

New Ulm VFW Silver 10, Sleepy Eye 1

Prior Lake 5, Luverne 3

Madelia 5, Hutchinson 1

Wayzata 5, Harrisburg 2

New Ulm Jr. Legion 8, Omaha Gross 7

Alexandria 19, Osseo 8

Maple Grove 4, Mankato East 1

(Third Place) Luverne 12, Wayzata 2

(Third Place) Madelia 4, Sleepy Eye 3

(Fourth Place) Harrisburg 11, Omaha Gross 1

(Fourth Place) Hutchinson 15, Osseo 5

(Gm. 29) Maple Grove 2, Alexandria 1

(Gm. 30) Prior Lake 6, Mankato West 5

(Gm. 31) Mankato East 11, New Ulm VFW Silver 2

(Gm. 32) New Ulm Jr. Legion 5, Owatonna 4

Sunday, June 30

(Gm. 33) Mankato East 8, New Ulm Jr. Legion 6

(Gm. 34) Maple Grove 4, Prior Lake 2

Championship Game

Maple Grove 8, Prior Lake 7