Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm pitcher Mitchell Hopp delivers a pitch in the second inning of a Section 2AAA Baseball Tournament game against Albert Lea on Wednesday at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM — Mitchell Hopp, Owen Castleman and Collin Forstner combined for a four-hit shutout and the New Ulm Eagles went blanked Albert Lea 4-0 Wednesday in the first round of the Section 2AAA Baseball Tournament at Johnson Park.

Hopp got the win for New Ulm, now 13-8. He went five innings and scattered two hits while striking out six. Castleman went 1 2/3 innings and fanned two, with Forstner closing the door in the seventh coming in with two Tigers runners on base with no outs but preserving the win.

Preston Smith took the loss for the Tigers, now 10-7. He was charged with two runs in 3 1/3 innings,

Zach Hubbard had two hits for New Ulm with a double. Owen Castleman and Hunter Larson each doubled.

New Ulm now plays Marshall, a 6-4 winner over Worthington, at 11 a.m. Saturday at Johnson Park in a winner’s bracket game, while Albert Lea falls into elimination play Saturday at 2 p.m. at Mueller Park.

“Our kids played very well and we were aggressive early,” New Ulm head coach Jeff Ferrell said. “We had runners on base and in scoring position all night (eight runners left on base). We had some good two-out hitting — we played really good defense and pitched well. That is the recipe for winning.”

Another recipe for success is to take advantage of the other team’s mistakes which the Eagles did in the bottom of the third when New Ulm used two Tigers errors to score twice after two were out.

Kyle Albrecht led off the inning with a single and reached second on a Smith throwing error. After Smith got the first two outs, Owen Castleman doubled to center to score Albrecht for a 1-0 lead.

Tanner Backer was intentionally walked. A Dirk Haynes ground ball to third handcuffed Tigers third baseman Alden Jensen and allowed Castleman to score for a 2-0 lead.

The Tigers — who had just one base runner through three innings — mounted a serious scoring threat on Hopp and the Eagles in the top of the fourth. An error with one out and a hit batsman and a walk with two outs loaded the bases for Albert Lea.

“I went out to the mound and asked Mitch if this moment was too big for him,” Ferrell said. “He looked at me and he struck him out.”

New Ulm made it a 4-0 game in the bottom of the sixth on RBI singles from Levi Hopp and Hubbard.

The Tigers would not go quietly in the seventh when a double and a walk with no outs ended Castleman’s day.

But reliever Collin Forstner got a line-drive double play and a groundout that ended the game and kept the Eagles in the winners bracket.