But Anderson settled down and allowed no runs on two hits in the final five innings and Greyhounds bats were able to score five runs in the first three innings as Cathedral downed the Wolverines 5-2.

Anderson struck out six and walked three as the Greyhounds improved to 15-7 on the season.

Landon Simon took the season-ending loss for the Wolverines. He went the distance and allowed eight hits and fanned three.

Alex Portner, Elijah Rieser and Anderson each had two hits for Cathedral.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Alex Portner runs home during the first inning of a Section 2A Baseball Tournament elimination bracket game against Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey on Thursday at Johnson Park.

The Greyhounds now face Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s at 1 p.m. Saturday in Sleepy Eye.

Sleepy Eye advanced in the winners bracket with a 4-3 win over St. Mary’s Thursday.

“Eli competed for seven innings,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “He gave us one heck of an effort out there — he really settled in from the third through the seventh inning. And we played clean baseball behind him — a zero-error game this time of year is what you need to keep on moving.”

The Wolverines scored a run in the top of the first when Heber Morales doubled, took third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Khalid Fontanez sacrifice fly.

But the Greyhounds scored a run in the bottom of the inning when Alex Portner walked and swiped second. An Elijah Rieser groundout put Portner on third and an Anderson bloop single to left scored him.

The Wolverines increased their lead to 2-1 in the second on a bases-loaded walk.

But those runs would be the last allowed by Anderson as he allowed just two hits — a Jason Wright one-out double in the third and a leadoff single to Tryton Khounsanthone — in the top of the seventh.

“I just calmed myself down and took a deep breath,” Anderson said. “I realized that I cannot hang my head because that will affect me. Took a deep breath and locked myself back in. Even though I let in one run in the second inning, I had the bases loaded but got out of it with no runs.”

And with Anderson locked back in on the mound, the Greyhounds’ offense picked up.

Cathedral plated two runs in the bottom of the second when Evan Starke singled and Henry Forst followed with a walk.

Both runners advanced a base on a throwing error before RBI singles from Lane Ruch, with Forst later scoring on an error.

A leadoff double from Rieser in the third sparked another two-run inning for the Greyhounds and Anderson followed with an RBI single.

“I knew I had to go to the plate and have a good at-bat,” Anderson said. “I had to recenter myself for my goals for the day and that was to help out the team.”

Anderson took second on an Evan Blekestad sacrifice bunt and a Ryler Collins run-scoring single for a 5-2 lead.

“We scored in the first three innings and that gave us a nice cushion,” Woitas said. “We did have some other opportunities to score that I wish we could have capitalized on, but hopefully we can do that on Saturday.”