The junior left-hander pitched six innings of thee-hit baseball and also drove in both Greyhounds runs as Cathedral improved to 4-1 on the young season with a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs.

Blekestad struck out seven Bulldogs hitters in his six innings of work and allowed the only run.

Henry Forst pitched the seventh inning and allowed one hit but fanned three batters.

Broc Mathews took the loss for the Bulldogs (0-4). He went five innings and was charged with two runs while striking out three.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Evan Bleckestad winds up for a pitch during a Tomahawk Division baseball game against Lester Prairie Tuesday at Johnson Park.

Elijah Rieser, Blekestad, Forst and Evan Starke had the hits for the Greyhounds, who out-hit Lester Prairie 4-3.

“Evan did a heck of job on the mound for us,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “He was consistently getting strike one — he got the big outs at big times — he really bore down in tough situations.”

The only run permitted by the southpaw came in the top of the third inning on a one-out walk to Jack Madson, two stolen bases and an RBI single off of the bat of Eli Lamott.

Other than that, Blekestad worked out of a sixth-inning threat with help from his friends.

Gavin Larson walked with one out but was thrown out trying to steal second by Cathedral catcher Eli Anderson.

That was big as Blekestad issued consecutive walks before he coaxed Lamott into an inning-ending ground ball.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the third, Rieser led off with a single to right and was sacrificed to second by Anderson.

Blekestad then tied the game with a line-drive single to center.

And in the bottom of the fifth, it was the bat of Blekestad again that produced the eventual game-winning run, with Rieser again crossing the plate.

Rieser walked and stole second and a wild pitch moved him to third.

From there it took a Blekestad sacrifice fly to plate Rieser for the lead.

“He also had a good day at the plate for us,” Woitas said. “This was his second start for us — he threw three innings for us against GFW and gave up one run.”

Cathedral hosts Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart in a doubleheader Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Mueller Park.