That was the scenario that faced the New Ulm VFW Silver’s Bobby Rewitzer as he stepped up to the plate in a District 2 VFW Baseball Tournament elimination bracket game against the third-seeded Mankato National on Friday morning.

“I was trying to get him to pitch to me,” Rewitzer said. “He had to pitch to me. If he would have walked me, we would have won, so he had to pitch in the zone.”

Rewitzer confidently swung, connected on the pitch and hit a walk-off single for a 3-2 win.

Rewitzer was also the winning pitcher in the game, striking out six and allowing two runs on nine hits in a complete game.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm VFW's Chase Wilson throws the ball over to first base during a District 2 VFW Baseball Game against the Mankato National on Friday.

“It means a lot,” Rewitzer said. “We came through in a lot of big games. We didn’t really start good right away, but we picked it up in the end.”

At the plate for the Silver, Blake Aufderheide was 2 for 3 with two RBIs, while Rewitzer was 2 for 3 with an RBI. Owen Drill had two hits and a run scored.

New Ulm now faces the loser of a game between top-seeded Marshall and second-seeded New Prague. That game begins at 7:30 p.m. later on Friday.

The game was scoreless through two innings, despite both teams getting multiple baserunners on. The National and the Silver combined for 20 hits on the game, but just five runs were scored as Rewitzer and Eli Davis, the National pitcher, both got out of multiple jams. New Ulm scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning, with Aufderheide hitting a sacrifice fly that brought home Evan Drill. Mankato responded quickly in the top of the fourth, with a double and a sacrifice fly of its own tying the game at 1. Aufderheide took the lead back for the Silver in the fifth inning with a double to scored Chase Wilson, but again Mankato tied it in the sixth after collecting four singles in the inning. However, Rewitzer got a strikeout with bases loaded to limit the damage.

The National threatened to score again in the top of the seventh, putting up two singles with no outs. The National attempted a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, but Rewitzer fielded the ball and got the lead runner out at third. He followed that up with a fly out and a strikeout to end the threat.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm VFW catcher Hudson Lieser prepares to tag out a runner during a District 2 VFW Baseball Game against the Mankato National on Friday.

The bottom of the seventh started slowly for the Silver, with the first two batters flying out. However, Blake Nachreiner drew a walk to start a two-out rally. Blake Johnson hit a single to continue the inning, then Wyatt Hanson drew another walk to load the bases. Rewitzer stepped up to the plate and hit a line drive to left-center field for the win.

Despite the exciting walk-off winner, Rewitzer remains focused on the rest of the tournament.

“I was happy, but we have to be ready for whoever is next,” he said.