Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Junior Legion’s Ryan Rathmann chases down a Montevideo Junior Legion base runner during a junior legion baseball game Wednesday at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM — Pitching and defense was the name of the game for New Ulm Junior Legion in a sweep of Montevideo Wednesday at Johnson Park.

New Ulm won the first matchup 1-0 and the second game 7-1, allowing just seven runs across the 14 innings played.

“This group’s focus and care is pretty high level,” New Ulm head coach Mike Anderson said. “We’re always engaged, we’re always trying to do the little things. We’re not perfect, they’re still kids, but they do a really good job and play at a really high level.”

Tanner Backer and Josh Forstner each picked up complete-game wins on the day, totaling 20 strikeouts, including a 12-strikeout second game from Josh Forstner. When runners did get on base, they were often thrown out on the base paths on double plays or steal attempts, with the New Ulm infield always on high alert.

Backer allowed three hits in his seven innings in the Game 1 win with eight strikeouts. At the plate, Backer was 2 for 3, while Hunter Larson had a hit and an RBI. Mitchell Hopp scored the lone run of the game.

New Ulm also struggled to get base runners on in the first game as Montevideo’s Caleb Klaasen allowed just five hits with four strikeouts of his own. However, in the bottom of the third inning, Eli Anderson drew a walk and Hopp, the courtesy runner, got to second on an errant pickoff attempt. Hopp advanced to third on a groundout put into play by Ryan Rathmann, then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Larson.

That ended up being all New Ulm needed as the defense turned two double plays and didn’t allow a runner home for the remainder of the game.

“A double play for us is something that we hope for,” coach Anderson said. “You get a hard-hit ground ball to the middle infield and theres a runner on first with less than two outs, we expect to get a double play.”

Josh Forstner walked just one batter in his 12-strikeout Game 2 win, along with four hits allowed. At the plate, Alex Portner had a hit, two RBIs and a run scored, while Evan Blekestad and Lane Ruch each had a hit, an RBI and a run scored. Colin Forstner had an RBI and a run scored. While New Ulm had just one more hit in Game 2, they drew four more walks and took advantage of runners in scoring position more frequently, leading to seven runs in the game.

New Ulm got the offense going in the second inning, with Hopp reaching on an error and walks from Josh Forstner and Landon Kapolczinski loading the bases. A single from Portner brought home two runners to give New Ulm the lead.

New Ulm scored twice more in the third, with a single from Ruch scoring Colin Forstner and a single from Josh Forstner bringing home Ruch for a 4-0 lead. New Ulm continued to score in pairs as a single from Blekestad and a sacrifice bunt from Colin Forstner made it a 6-0 game after four.

Montevideo scored its lone run of the day after they loaded the bases in the top of the fifth, with a sacrifice fly bringing home a run. However, Forstner pitched his ninth strikeout of the game to get out of the inning. New Ulm added an insurance run in the fifth as Hopp and Portner executed a double steal to score Hopp.

New Ulm begins the Sub-State Tournament as the top-seeded team in the Southwest Bracket and will play its first game at 4:30 p.m. at Mankato East High School on Wednesday, July 23. New Ulm will play the eighth seed, which is yet to be determined.