File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Elliot Schabert (14) is congratulated by teammate Logan Mielke (20) after scoring a run during a game with Minnesota Valley Lutheran on May 1 at Mueller Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral enters Section 2A Baseball Tournament play Thursday when the Greyhounds, seeded fourth with a 16-4 record, host Martin County West at 5 p.m. at Johnson Park.

MCW brings a 1-14 mark into tournament play and is seeded 13th.

Cathedral head baseball coach Alan Woitas, who has led his Greyhounds to two straight state tournament trips, knows that this year’s section is deep.

“This section is as good as any in the state,” he said. “Everybody knows that. Whoever wins this section is going to be a team that does not make mistakes — if you play clean baseball and don’t give up free base runners by walking or hitting guys or making mistakes in the field. Offensively you need to put the ball in play and capitalize on opportunities you get from doing that and you will have a chance. But there are a lot of good teams and it will be a fun section to be part of.”

Woitas believes that Section 2A this year may be the strongest it has been in the last three or four years.

“We have always had two or three teams at the top, but this year there are seven or eight teams in the section that have a shot to make some noise,” he said. “You have to be ready to go from the get-go.”

Cathedral’s four losses this season have come against solid teams.

The Greyhounds have lost twice to Springfield by scores of 3-1 and 5-1, a 3-2 loss to St. Mary’s and an 8-1 defeat at the hands of Sleepy Eye Public.

“Those teams are all really good,” Woitas said. “The Springfield games we faced Jakob and and Kade Nachreiner and they both threw extremely well against us. The St. Mary’s game was one where we had some opportunities. And the loss to Sleepy Eye was an uncharacteristic game for us. We kicked the ball around a little bit.”

Woitas said that those are quality playoff teams.

“We need to find different ways to manufacture runs and we have been better at that now later in the year and we hope to continue that over the next couple of weeks,” he said.

The Greyhounds have had pretty good pitching performances and have played consistent defense over the year.

“And offensively we have had different people throughout our lineup step up and be productive,” Woitas said. “And we are going to need that now in the playoffs — that is a game-changer when you can get contributions from the bottom end of your lineup and not be so dependent on the top end.

“Our team has proven that we can score runs all throughout our lineup and that challenges opposing pitchers as well.”

Cathedral will be without outfielder Matt Seidl, who had surgery on his foot.

“That is a huge loss for us because he did a lot of really good things for us,” Woitas said. “So to try and find a way to replace him, I am not sure if there is one guy that can go out and replace Matt Seidl. We will need a collective effort to fill his shoes. We are hoping we have some guys who will step up.”

SECTION 2A SEEDINGS

1. Springfield; 2. Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s; 3. Sleepy Eye Public; 4. Cathedral; 5. Mankato Loyola; 6. Madelia; 7. Martin Luther; 8. Minnesota Valley Lutheran; 9. GFW; 10. Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey; 11. BOLD; 12. Heron Lake-Okabena; 13. MCW; 14. BLHS; 15. Cleveland (did not get enough games in).