Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm VFW Silver’s Parker Ranweiler slides into home during a home VFW baseball game against Maple River on Tuesday at Mueller Park.

By Ari Selvey

aselvey@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — A seven-run third inning propelled New Ulm Silver VFW over Maple River 12-9 in a VFW baseball game on Tuesday at Mueller Park.

New Ulm was down 4-2 to start off the inning. Paxton Johnson led off the inning with a walk, then Miles Castleman singled and Owen Castleman drove in Johnson with a hit of his own. Kaden Stueber singled to load the bases, then Evan Starke and Porter Jensen both drew walks to collect RBIs and take a 5-4 lead. Parker Ranweiler drew another walk to score a run before Johnson, in his second at-bat of the inning, singled to score three runs, but was thrown out advancing to second to end the inning.

Tanner Kissner made the start and brought home the win for Silver, pitching two innings and allowing no runs on two hits. Johnson pitched the final scoreless inning, striking out two and allowing no hits. At the plate for New Ulm, Miles Castleman was 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored, while Johnson was 2 for 3 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Ranweiler was 2 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Owen Castleman, Starke, Jensen and Noah Gode each had a hit and an RBI.

Miles Castleman got the scoring started with a triple in the first inning, bringing home Johnson. Miles Castleman reach home on a wild pitch to give New Ulm a 2-0 lead.

After a scoreless second inning, Maple River scored four runs in the third inning on two hits, two walks and an error to put them up 4-2. However, New Ulm’s seven-run bottom of the inning put them back up 9-4.

Maple River got one back in the fourth inning to make it a 9-5 game, but New Ulm scored its 10th run of the game in the bottom of the inning as a Miles Castleman single led to an RBI single by Stueber. New Ulm loaded up the bases in the inning, but were unable to push any more runs across as a groundout ended the frame.

Maple River scored four more runs in the fifth inning to crawl back to a 10-9 deficit, but New Ulm scored twice in the fifth, starting with a single by Ranweiler, who came home on a sacrifice fly by Miles Castleman, then a walk from Owen Castleman was capitalized on by an error put into play by Stueber to score a run and make it a 12-9 game.

The Silver defense tightened up in the final two innings, allowing just one base runner in the sixth and the seventh to close out the game.

New Ulm opens the Junior Upper Midwest Classic against Sleepy Eye Junior Legion at 6 p.m. Thursday at Johnson Park.