Friday night, Dassel-Cokato scored five of their first six runs of the game off of four walks and two hit batters as they downed New Ulm Gold 9-7 in the Upper Midwest Classic at Johnson Park.

Jackson Yanke got the win for Dassel-Cokato. He went six innings and allowed three runs while striking out nine.

Kolton Achman took the loss for New Ulm. He went 4 1/3 innings and allowed six runs. He did walk four and hit two — five of which ended up scoring.

Jayce Olthoff and Isaac Salmen each had two hits for Dassel-Cokato.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Ben Alfred crosses home plate with teammate Luke Suess (1) in a legion baseball game of the Upper Midwest Tournament against Dassel-Cokato Friday at Johnson Park.

Colin Anderson had two hits for New Ulm, who plays Plover Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Johnson Park.

“We did not get the best starting pitching today,” New Ulm coach Curt Forbrook said.

Dassel-Cokato took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Salmen RBI double before New Ulm took their only lead of the game with two runs in the bottom of the inning on an Ethan Thompson two-run single.

But Dassel scored three runs in the second on a hit batter, two walks, a ground out and a Yanke two-run single.

New Ulm came back with one run in the bottom of the inning on a Jake Finstad groundout.

But Dassel-Cokato scored two runs in the fifth on a hit batsman, two walks, a double steal and a Parker Haataja bunt single.

Dassel made it 9-3 in the sixth on a single, an error, a two-run triple from Salmen and a groundout.

New Ulm came back with a run in the bottom of the sixth before three runs in the seventh, but fell short of a full comeback.

“We hit the ball better tonight, but our pitching let us down,” Forbrook said. “That is the first time this year that our pitching has let us down. And we have some fighters on this team — we came back.”