The win marked the fourth consecutive victory by the Gold, now 15-8. It also reaffirmed New Ulm’s placement as the top seed in the Sub-State 2 Tournament, as Marshall is the second seed in the tournament.

“I think it establishes us and shows that we can play with anybody,” New Ulm’s Tanner Backer said. “We earned that one seed.”

Backer earned the win on the mound for New Ulm, striking out two and allowing no runs on one hit in four innings. Backer’s performance continues a trend of strong pitching outings from New Ulm in the past week.

“We’ll be ready for playoffs,” Backer said. “Our defense, we’re not making errors any more. We’re fielding the ball, we’re throwing, it, all around we’re playing solid baseball.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Legion’s Levi Hopp runs safely to home during a legion baseball game against Marshall Thursday at Johnson Park.

At the plate for New Ulm, Levi Hopp was 3 for 3 with a run scored, while Backer was 2 for 4 with a run scored. Josh Forstner also had two hits, while Dirk Haynes had a hit and two RBIs.

Ethan Weedman took the loss for Marshall, striking out one but allowing three unearned runs on three hits in one inning. At the plate, Andrew Stelter was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored, while Trae Bailey and Chase Alcorn each had a hit and an RBI.

Neither team scored until the third inning, where Hunter Larson got New Ulm on the board with a sacrifice fly. Haynes added two more runs with a single to score Colin Forstner and Evan Blekestad for a 3-0 lead. New Ulm continued to score in the fourth inning, with Zach Hubbard earning an RBI on a groundout, and a throwing error allowed Backer to come home in the fifth inning to give the Gold a 5-0 advantage.

Marshall got the bats going in the sixth inning, with a Bailey double scoring Stelter for its first run of the game. Alcorn followed that up with a single to make it 5-2, but the New Ulm defense got the final two outs of the inning to limit the damage. Marshall scored one more run in the seventh as Stelter got an RBI triple, but again the New Ulm defense came together, getting two outs to end the game.

While New Ulm has an automatic bid to the state tournament this year due to being the hosts, Backer said that wouldn’t stop the team for preparing just as hard for its next game, which will be against eight-seeded Worthington in the sub-state tournament on Wednesday in Mankato.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Legion’s Tanner Backer delivers a pitch during a legion baseball game against Marshall Thursday at Johnson Park.

“I think our focus, we’re not looking at the state tournament at all,” Backer said. “We’re just focused on trying to win our sub-section because that’s more important that state right now.”