Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad plays a ground ball during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover baseball game Friday evening at Mueller Park. Finstad was able to knock the ball down and fire to first for the out on the play.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral could muster just three hits in their game with Mankato Loyola Friday night at Mueller Park.

But the Greyhounds were able to parlay those three hits into seven runs as Cathedral stopped the Crusaders 7-3 in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover baseball game.

Colin Anderson got credit for the win for Cathedral. He went 4 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits while striking out seven. Joey Schugel relieved Anderson and retired seven straight Loyola batters.

Camden Winter took the loss for Loyola.

“This was not definitely not the cleanest game that we have played in all three facets,” Cathedral coach Alan Woitas said. “We did not hit the ball exceptionally well and we made a few mistakes in the field. But I thought that our pitchers really competed — our defense put them in some tough spots and they got out of some big jams.”

While the Greyhounds defense had some hiccups in the game, it was the Loyola defense that allowed Cathedral to score three unearned runs in the bottom of the first after taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the inning.

Jake Finstad reached on an error to start the inning before Caleb Forstner walked. Both runners moved up on a double steal with a Colin Anderson groundout scored Finstad. An Elliott Schabert sac fly tied the game at 2-2 before two more infield errors allowed the third run to score.

“They made some mistakes and we capitalized on them,” Woitas said. “That is what good teams do — they take advantage of other team’s mistakes and we were able to do that in that inning.”

Loyola tied the game in the top of the third on two Cathedrals errors. But Cathedral pushed four runs across in the bottom of the fourth on just two hits.

“Schabert had that big hit (a triple) that kind of blew it open,” Woitas said. “We had a really nice bunt from Josh Forstner after a leadoff walk — Evan Blekestad used some really good base running to get from second to third on a ball in the dirt — and that allowed [Elijah] Rieser to get to first on a dropped third strike. It was a goofy way to score four runs, but baseball is a weird game sometimes.”

Loyola threatened in the top of the fifth when they loaded the bases with one out which ended Anderson’s day on the mound.

But Joey Schugel came in and retired the next two batters to end the inning and then set down the next six batters in a row to close out the game.

“Joey has not had an opportunity to throw a ton of innings, but he is very good,” Woitas said. “He is going to pound the strike zone — he is a little different where he pitches backwards. He has good command of his two pitches and he is confident in both of them.”

Cathedral, now 9-1, hosts Lester Prairie at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mueller Park.