Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm Pitcher Kolton Achman looks to throw to first after a bunt during a home baseball game against Waseca on Thursday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — Kolton Achman started Thursday’s game off by hitting the first batter he saw this season and allowing a run, but he and the New Ulm Eagles’ offense took off after that on the way to a 13-2 blowout win over Waseca in five innings of a Big South Conference baseball game.

Achman hit two batters in the game but allowed just one earned run on three hits and a walk while striking out eight batters in five innings.

“I think I could have taken out some of the hit by pitches, but it didn’t really matter in the end because we had good defense behind us that helped me out when I needed it,” Achman said.

The Eagles had two errors in the game but the offense racked up 11 hits, led by Dirk Haynes, who went 3 for 3 with a double and three RBIs. Tanner Backer followed by going 2 for 3 with two RBIs, while Ryan Rathmann was 2 for 3 with an RBI and Levi Hopp had a two-run double.

Deven Parpart started the game on the mound for the Bluejays and went three innings, allowing eight hits and four walks for nine earned runs while striking out two.

“Early on we had a little bit of going through the motions and we didn’t raise our level of compete,” said Eagles head coach Mike Anderson. “No matter who we play, no matter the score, our level of compete needs to be at a certain level. The beginning of the game, it wasn’t quite there, but I was super proud of the boys, because after about the third or fourth inning, they raised it.”

Colten Ruedy grounded out to bring in Parpart, who was hit by pitch to open the game, allowing Waseca to take an early 1-0 lead. Kyle Albrecht evened the score with a single to bring in Ben Alfred in the bottom of the first.

New Ulm took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI single from Haynes bringing in Levi Hopp. Alfred singled in Haynes with two outs to bring the score to 3-1.

In the third, Haynes doubled in Rathmann with a fly ball to center for a 4-1 lead.

The Eagles got everyone involved in the fourth inning, scoring a total nine runs. Backer started the scoring with a two-run single. Levi Hopp doubled in a pair of runs to highlight the inning.

Anderson added that Achman did a nice job on the mound and found the zone for the most part.

“He filled up the zone for the most part pretty good,” Anderson said. “He said his two-seam was getting away from him every once in a while and would hit a kid, but as a whole, I mean he did the job … he got outs.”

New Ulm is now 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference and travels to St. Peter for a 5:30 p.m. Big South Conference game Friday.

The Bluejays fell to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the conference and are at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva on Monday in nonconference action.