File photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Colin Anderson walks off the mound after delivering the game-winning pitch of the Section 2A Baseball Championship against Springfield Thursday at Mankato East High School.

ST. CLOUD — New Ulm Cathedral was seeded second in the Class A State Baseball Tournament that begins Wednesday at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.

The Greyhounds, champions of Section 2A, will meet 19-7 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, the champions of Section 3A, at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Cathedral head baseball coach Alan Woitas said that his Tomahawk-Valley Conference and Section 2A champions as a team that has been led by his four seniors on the mound.

“Our four senior pitchers — Jake Finstad, Colin Anderson, Caleb Forstner and Joey Schugel — have really done a nice job this season pounding the strike zone,” Woitas said. “And they do not give up free bases. From that standpoint we have relied on those arms and defensively we have made plays behind them.”

Anderson leads the Cathedral pitching staff with an 8-0 record. In 46 2/3 innings, Anderson has posted a 1.23 ERA with 55 strikeouts and just 17 free passes.

Finstad is 6-1 on the season with a minuscule 0.97 ERA, 43 strikeouts and only six walks allowed.

Forstner is 5-0 and in 34 innings and carries a 1.21 ERA with seven walks allowed.

And Schugel is 2-0 with an ERA of 0.53 in 13 1/3 innings pitched with two saves.

As a pitching staff, the Greyhounds carry a 1.57 team ERA.

Woitas said that offensively the Greyhounds are a team that gets production from every batter in the lineup.

“Offensively it is the uniqueness of the contributions of players one through nine in the lineup,” he said. “Even in the section tournament we had different players step up each game and that wears opposing pitchers down — there is not an easy out and we consistently put the ball in play and force other teams to make plays.”

Finstad sparks the Cathedral offense from his leadoff spot in the order.

He is hitting a team-leading .403 when he is either on the mound of playing shortstop.

He has scored 36 runs and on 29 hits and has six doubles, six triples and one home run along with 20 RBIs to his offensive arsenal. His on-base percentage is .527.

Anderson carries a .319 batting average with 27 runs scored an 23 RBIs. He has six doubles, a triple and a home run

Forstner is hitting .339 with 29 runs scored and 21 RBIs.

Elliot Schabert takes a .353 batting average to Faber Field. He has driven in 33 runs on six doubles.

Schugel totes a .353 batting average with 19 RBIs and six doubles.

As a team, Cathedral is hitting .334.

“And we have a lot of team speed as well and we have utilized that this season — we are a very good base running team — and we can go from first to third on a base hit,” Woitas said. “We can steal a base here and there and that puts a lot of pressure on opposing defenses,”

And the Greyhounds do not beat themselves with errors.

“In high school baseball when you have pitchers who are going to throw strikes and challenge hitters and a defense that is going to make plays behind them you have a chance to win every game,” Woitas said “We have done that all season and hopefully we can continue to do that in this upcoming week.”

The Greyhounds also got back catcher Eli Anderson towards the end of this season after he recovered from an injury.

“Eli and Josh Forstner have done a nice job behind the plate for us and having Eli back allows us to play Josh in the outfield,” Woitas said.

Woitas said that playing in a tough Section 2A tournament has prepped his team for the state tournament.

“Section 2A has plenty of quality teams and pitching and there is not a gimme anywhere,” he said.

While the Greyhounds are no stranger to state tournament play, this is the first-ever state baseball tournament appearance for the RTR Knights.

“This our first-ever trip to the state,” RTR head coach Daniel Moffitt said. “This program started in 2008 and we have been close — we have been to the section championship two years ago.”

He said that his team is a well-rounded team.

“We field pretty good in all of our positions and they play well together.”

Moffitt’s team was seeded third in the in the 3A South behind Murray County Central and Edgerton before defeating top-seeded Dawson-Boyd twice and then getting two impressive wins over second-seeded YME by scores of 15-5 and 18-3 to earn their first Section 3A crown.

“We all hit pretty well as a team,” Moffitt said about his team that scored 33 runs in their two sectional finals wins over YME. “The bottom part of our section was tough — everybody had one good pitcher — and if you did not show up and had to many errors.

“And I had a few injuries in the season, so we lost a couple of games that we should have won. We just play good baseball and our bats have woken up pretty good lately. We just need to stay positive and keep grinding. If we get down by two or three runs or a couple of errors to keep grinding it and don’t give up.”