Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Junior Legion Gold’s Ryan Rathmann takes off for second base during a Junior Upper Midwest Classic game against Luverne Saturday at Johnson Park.

By Jim Bastian

sports@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — New Ulm Junior Legion Gold broke a 1-1 tie with a six-run third inning and went on to top Luverne Junior Legion 9-3 Saturday night at Johnson Park in a Junior Upper Midwest Classic quarterfinals game.

Mitchell Hopp got the win for Gold. He went six innings and allowed three runs while striking out five.

Cory Thune took the loss for Luverne.

Hunter Larson continued his hot hitting with three hits. Levi Hopp added two hits.

Ryan Rathmann and Josh Forstner each drove in two runs.

New Ulm now plays Owatonna at noon Sunday at Johnson Park, with Mankato East meeting Alexandria at 9:30 a.m. .Winners will meet at 2:30 p.m. for the championship.

For Junior Gold it was a case of another big inning.

“We scored a run in the first inning (on a Luverne error) and then we saw the ball well,” New Ulm coach Mike Anderson said.

Backer walked to start the fourth inning and a Levi Hopp brought him in. A walk and a Larson RBI single increased the lead to 3-1. Josh Forstner’s two-run single increased the lead to 5-1.

Alex Portner singled in Forstner before Portner stole second and third before scoring on a throwing error for a 7-1 lead.

Luverne scored twice in the bottom of the inning before Gold added single runs the top of the sixth and seventh innings.

Earlier in the day, Gold got to the meeting with Luverne by hammering Osseo 14-0 in five innings.

Collin Forstner got the win, allowing just one hit and fanning four.

Candon Briggs and Backer each had two hits for Junior Gold, with Eli Anderson circling the bases on an inside-the-park home run.

New Ulm took advantage of 12 walks from Osseo pitchers in that game.