That classic phrase defined the New Ulm Junior Legion Gold baseball team Thursday following their 8-3 victory over Marshall in the DI Junior Legion Sub-State G Baseball Tournament title game.

The win at American Legion Field punched the Junior Gold’s ticket to this year’s DI Junior Legion State Baseball Tournament in Alexandria next Thursday, which will be the program’s third consecutive state trip. Many of the players on this year’s team will be new to the tournament, but a handful of them played for the junior legion team last year and got to experience what the state tournament was like.

After catcher Trevan Thordson caught a pop-up in front of the mound for the final out of Thursday’s sub-state title game, smiles were exchanged and a few fists were pumped, but it was business as usual for New Ulm at the end of the day.

One goal accomplished, another one on the horizon.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Junior Legion Gold pitcher Conlin McAlpine delivers a pitch in the first inning of the DI Junior Legion Sub-State G Baseball Tournament finals against Marshall on Thursday at American Legion Field in Marshall.

New Ulm, which beat second-seeded Marshall in the first round of the tournament as the third seed, watched Marshall take down top-seeded New Prague earlier on Thursday to earn a spot in the finals. Marshall needed to beat New Ulm on Thursday to force a second and final title game on Friday, but New Ulm made sure that didn’t happen behind plenty of offense, solid fielding and strong mound performances from starter Conlin McAlpine and reliever Eli Anderson.

McAlpine ended up allowing eight hits and two walks for two earned runs while striking out two in 4 2/3 innings pitched.

He may not have had a career-high in strikeouts Thursday, but McAlpine was making it hard on hitters with breaking pitches and keeping the ball low to force several ground balls.

“It’s nice to be able to trust your defense,” McAlpine said. “Even if you mess up, they’re going to hold you up, they’re gonna be the spine.”

McAlpine first found out he was pitching in the finals game Thursday after New Ulm beat New Prague in the semifinals.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau The New Ulm Junior Legion Gold’s Kaden Stueber slides into third safely for a triple during the DI Junior Legion Sub-State G Baseball Tournament finals against Marshall on Thursday in Marshall.

“I was mid chicken strip at Culver’s and [coach] Ferrell calls me over and tells me I’m going to start the next game,” McAlpine said. “So I figured, yeah, I’ve just gotta shove.”

Shove — or pitch dominantly — McAlpine did.

Thordson called the entire game behind the plate and asked for several curveballs from McAlpine and Anderson, mixing in fastballs fairly evenly with curveballs.

“Trevan has been swinging a great stick, he’s had an outstanding tournament,” New Ulm head coach Jeff Ferrell said. “His two games he caught behind the plate were outstanding. He called every pitch. If you noticed, we had a lot of back-to-back-to-back curveballs. Pitchers kept the ball down, but he called the game, he ran the game, it was all him.”

With New Ulm up 8-3 and a runner on second with two outs following an RBI single from Bennett Graven, Anderson threw a fastball that was popped up to the left of home plate and in from Anderson near the mound. Thordson, who had caught a great game up to that point, was able to secure one more ball in his mitt with the game-ending out.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau The New Ulm Junior Legion Gold’s Noah Gode runs to third during the DI Junior Legion Sub-State G Baseball Tournament finals against Marshall on Thursday in Marshall.

“Was a pretty cool moment,” Thordson said. “It was a team effort, and luckily the ball came to me last moment and I got the out.”

Thordson also had a big day at the plate. He ended up going 2 for 4 with a big three-run triple that really set the tone for the New Ulm offense in the second inning and gave his team a 5-0 lead.

“It meant a lot,” Thordson said. “Getting that early lead helps a lot and we just kept momentum and ended up winning.”

Before that big hit, a delayed double steal saw Evan Starke take second and Miles Castleman score for the first run of the game, while a bases-loaded walk by Ryler Collins scored Starke for a 2-0 lead. Marshall made a pitching change with a 2-0 count during that Collins plate appearance, moving starting pitcher Graven to right field and putting Breanden Price on the mound in a tough situation.

Graven was tagged with the loss, pitching 1 2/3 innings and allowing three hits and two walks for five earned runs while striking out one. Despite taking the loss, he led Marshall with his bat by going 3 for 4 with two RBIs.

Kaden Stueber had a big day at the plate for the Junior Gold also, going 2 for 3 with an RBI triple to right, which scored Noah Gode from second in the bottom of the fifth for an 8-2 New Ulm lead. Gode reached on a leadoff single.

“Big hits from Noah Gode, Kaden Stueber, back-to-back, they had great at-bats,” Ferrell said. “That’s big when you get a lead like that.”

An inning earlier, New Ulm went up 7-0 on an RBI single by Collins that scored Owen Castleman. Marshall got two runs in the fifth after three consecutive singles with two outs were followed by an RBI single from Graven and an error in the outfield to score Charlie Moline.

Anderson allowed just one unearned run, one hit and one walk in his 2 1/3 innings, but he struck out three and held it down for McAlpine and the Junior Gold in the end. Anderson is one of those players back from last year’s state team, and his leadership was on full display again Thursday.

Ferrell also said he was happy with his pitchers and how the defense played behind them, which included turning a double play in the first inning with runners on first and second and no outs.

“I’ve got to give Conlin [respect],” Ferrell said. “He got out in front, he had good finishes, tilt on his curveball was outstanding. Sure, he got into trouble when he got the ball up, but anybody would do that. We could throw that [curveball] for a strike and I bet you we threw 50-50 fastball, curveball. Then Eli coming in and getting us six outs was outstanding. That was good baseball, especially the double play we turned at the beginning with the Castlemans, that was great. Miles buried his nose in a couple ground balls, and how about the play [third baseman] Evan Starke made, too, over to his right, deep, and throwing a guy out at first.”

New Ulm is now scheduled to play the Sub-State D tournament winner at 2 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the state tournament at Knute Nelson Memorial Field in Alexandria. The Sub-State D title game is scheduled for this Saturday and currently Bayport/Stillwater, Maple Grove and White Bear Lake are alive in that sub-state tournament.

Regardless of who is next up for New Ulm, which moved to 21-8 with the sub-state title win, McAlpine is confident and excited for the state tournament.

“It’s great, we’ve got a really good team here,” McAlpine said. “We’ve just gotta go and destroy it. Honestly, we’ve just gotta play like we did today. Keep calm, don’t fold under pressure and we’ll do great there.”