Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Legion Gold’s Logan Mielke flips the ball to teammate Colin Anderson (6) during the opening game of the Upper Midwest Classic Thursday at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Legion Gold won a close 2-0 game over Waseca behind the arm of Colin Anderson on Thursday in the opening game of the Upper Midwest Classic at Johnson Park.

The scheduled first game of the day between New Ulm Junior Legion and Sleepy Eye was postponed to Saturday due to weather.

“We got a really good pitching performance from Colin Anderson,” New Ulm head coach Curt Forbrook said. “When we pitch well, we play pretty good defense, that’s a good recipe for us usually. That was the main thing.”

Anderson struck out seven batters and allowed only a single hit and four walks in 6 2/3 innings.

“I think locating pitches was my biggest asset out there,” Anderson said. “I was really trying to pound the outside corner there. Curveball was looking a lot better than normal.”

At the plate for Gold, Caleb Forstner had a double and an RBI, while Logan Mielke had a hit and an RBI. Evan Thompson and Landon Barstad each had a hit and a run scored.

Gold took a small-ball approach to putting runners in scoring position, bunting often and coming up with clutch hits in scoring situations.

“Lately we have been starting to do that a lot,” Anderson said. “We’ve won three straight, so we’re playing better and better. It generates hits and runners a lot easier.”

Thompson was the first to score for New Ulm in the second, getting on first with a single and scoring all the way from first on a double by Forstner that landed deep in left field. Defensively, Anderson and the New Ulm defense went through nine batters consecutively before a walk put a runner on first in the fourth. Nothing came of it, however, as the next three batters were put down as well.

Meanwhile, New Ulm scored another runner in the bottom of the third. Barstad got a drag bunt down to leadoff the inning, then Jake Finstad bunted and reached first as well. A single by Mielke got Barstad home to make it a 2-0 game.

Anderson allowed a few runners on base in the fifth and loaded the bases in the sixth, but he worked his way out of the jam both times. In the seventh, Anderson was relieved for Blaine Olson with two outs and runners on first and second. Olson coaxed a groundout to first for the final out of the game.

New Ulm plays Dassel-Cokato at 7 p.m. Friday at Johnson, then takes on Plover at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday at Johnson. Forbrook sees Mankato American and Mankato National as New Ulm’s biggest competition in the tournament.