Hunter Larson tossed six innings of two-hit ball and The Gold manufactured enough runs as New Ulm came away with a 4-1 win over New Prague Wednesday night at Johnson Park.

Larson fanned four and the lone run allowed by the right-hander was unearned.

Henry Roufs took the loss for New Prague in relief.

Larson and Evan Blekestad each had two of New Ulm’s six hits with Alex Portner collecting an RBI triple.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey The New Ulm Legion Gold’s Hunter Larson delivers a pitch during a legion baseball game aginst Prior Lake Wednesday at Johnson Park.

“Hunter pitched very well,” New Ulm head coach Curt Forbrook said. “He has gotten better every time out this year, so it is fun to watch.”

The Gold, who host Marshall Thursday at 6 p.m. at Johnson Park, grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Blekestad singled and took second on a Dirk Haynes sacrifice bunt.

He scored on Portner’s triple down the left field line.

That 1-0 lead held until New Ulm pushed across two more runs in the fifth.

Levi Hopp reached on a fielder’s choice and Jake Finstad singled.

Hopp raced home on a Larson single and a wild pitch later plated Finstad.

New Prague cut the New Ulm lead to 3-1 in the top of the sixth on a throwing error, but the Gold, now 14-8 on the year, got it back in the bottom of the inning when Blekestad reached on an error and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Forbrook said that he feels that the Gold’s strength right now is their pitching, especially after a shutout by Zach Hubbard Tuesday.

“That is the strongest part of our game right now,” he said. “I felt that our defense was but we had we had [three] errors again tonight, but that is getting better — we are settling into a line-up to.”

The Gold did get the number one seed in the Sub-State 2 bracket ahead of No. 2 Marshall, who the Gold host Thursday.

“We are going to throw a combination of Tanner Backer and Josh Forstner — we want to get everybody on the mound before playoffs.” Forbrook said.