Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Madelia’s Tate Becker (3) is greeted at home plate by his teammates after hitting a solo home run in a Section 2A baseball playoff game against Minnesota Valley Lutheran on Tuesday at Searles Ballpark.

SEARLES — On Tuesday evening at Searles Ballpark, Minnesota Valley Lutheran left-hander Josh Vander Plas and Madelia right-hander Zach Jacobs got the chance to face off with each other for the second time this season.

But this time, it was a proper faceoff with higher stakes in the Section 2A Baseball Tournament. While both pitchers limited their opposition’s offense, Madelia did enough early on with its offense to get past the big Chargers lefty and earn a 5-1 win.

The two pitchers took the mound to play against each other in both team’s first game of the season on March 27 in Searles, a 7-6 comeback win for Madelia, but Vander Plas had a limited pitch count and was pulled after four strong innings and Jacobs got the hook after three innings.

On Tuesday, both pitchers went all seven innings, but it was early run support that helped Jacobs settle in and strand nine MVL base runners for the win. Jacobs finished Tuesday’s complete game by allowing five hits and four walks for one earned run while striking out nine.

Madelia head coach Jimmy Kiefer said he sees a lot of similarity between his squad and MVL and he was happy with how his pitcher responded to some tough spots.

“MVL is a really solid team,” he said. “If we played them 10 times, we’d probably go 5-5. They’re very comparable to us, so it was a really fun, exciting, competitive game. Proud of Zach, the way he competed the whole time, got through a little bit of adversity throughout the game, but did a great job of kind of bailing himself out of it. Proud of him.”

One tough spot Jacobs was faced with came in the fifth when after getting two quick outs, he allowed a single to Brennan Bendix and walks to Blake Sexton and Vander Plas. Not letting that get to him, Jacobs struck out the next batter to end the threat and keep the Chargers off the board.

Vander Plas’ six innings Tuesday saw him allow four hits, two walks and two hit batters for four earned runs while striking out eight.

After Vander Plas clunked the first hitter he saw in the game in Noel Davila, he bounced back with a strikeout, a groundout and a flyout to end the first inning. He ran into some trouble again in the second, however.

After Evan Coil singled to lead off, Tate Becker reached on a fielder’s choice that got Coil out at second. A walk to Kyle Pietsch followed, before a flyout had two outs in the inning.

Becker then took off for third, and MVL catcher Kaden Peterson got a good throw off to his third baseman for a chance of getting Becker out to end the inning, but the home plate umpire called interference on himself and sent Becker back to second. A walk to Brayden Grev followed before Davila was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game to bring in a run.

Dalton Tatro then singled to center to score two and make it 3-0 Madelia.

“Josh battled, that’s what he is,” MVL head coach Jim Buboltz said. “Threw 110 pitches, still struck out the last guy. The middle innings, second and third innings, I think we were all kind of confused with what happened with the interference call and I think that got us messed up with what pitch to call and he was confused with where he was in the count. So, that was really big, because that was the third out, and then all the sudden all three score after that. We were real confused about that, but he didn’t let it get him down, he came back, battled back.”

Regardless of that confusion and disappointment with the second inning, Buboltz said the bottom line was how many runners his team stranded.

“The big number tonight is nine,” he said. “We left nine guys on base, with eight of those being on second or third base. You’ve got to have one or two base hits and obviously it’s a different game. Hopefully next time we will. Jacobs did a nice job, their pitcher did, got the big outs when they needed it.”

Kiefer said facing Vander Plas early in the year was helpful Tuesday, but it didn’t make a lot easier.

“We expected Josh, we knew what we were going to get,” Kiefer said. “Josh is a really quality pitcher, he fills the zone up. So, honestly, it was a blessing getting to see him earlier in the year, just helped with our preparation, kind of knowing what the assignment is and either we were going to execute on it or we weren’t. Thankfully today went in our favor. I’m sure if we saw him again, it could be Josh’s day, and it’s just how baseball goes.”

A Becker bunt in the third scored Miah Garza for a 4-0 Madelia lead. Becker put a pitch over the fence in right field for homer in his next at-bat, giving Madelia a 5-0 lead.

With two outs in the seventh, Bendix drew a walk to keep MVL alive before Sexton tripled to center to put MVL on the board. Jacobs coaxed a groundout to end the game soon after.

MVL (10-10) will host Mankato Loyola on Thursday in an elimination bracket game, while Madelia (15-5) travels to New Ulm to take on New Ulm Cathedral in a winners bracket game Thursday.