FOCUSED — Fairmont third baseman Brendan Schmidtke focuses on the arriving throw as Windom Area runner Wriley Haugen records a stolen base during Big South Conference baseball action Monday at Herb Wolf Field in Fairmont. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — Solid pitching wins games and the No. 1-ranked Fairmont baseball team used Nate Soelter’s well-pitched game to propel the Cardinals to a 6-2 Big South Conference win over the Windom Area Eagles on Monday at Herb Wolf Field in Fairmont.

“It wasn’t our cleanest game, but we had enough to get the win,” Fairmont assistant coach Levi Becker said. “There is something about Windom that makes every game close. It doesn’t matter what the records are because they will play us tough.”

Soelter pitched 6 1/3 innings, leaving because of the pitch-count rule. He gave up only three hits, one earned run, two walks and struck out six to pick up the win.

Brendan Schmidtke, fresh off his throwing a no-hitter, pitched the final 2/3s of an inning, giving up two bloop singles with one strikeout.

Windom Area left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh and had the tying run at the plate, but Schmidtke got the final out on a comebacker before the Eagles could score any runs.

Chayton Struck took the loss for the Eagles, pitching four innings, giving up four runs — three earned — on four hits, two walks and no strikeouts. Quintin Tietz pitched two innings, giving up two earned runs, two hits, three walks and two strikeouts in relief.

“Nate pitched well,” Becker said. “He didn’t give Windom much to hit and threw strikes.”

Offensively, the Cardinals scored two runs in the first, fourth and sixth innings.

“We had some big hits and that, combined with good pitching, helped us get the win,” Becker said. “As I said, it wasn’t our cleanest defensive game, but we did enough of the other things, like getting some big hits, to get the win against a team in our conference and section.”

In the bottom of the first, Landen Meyerdirk walked, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on Soelter’s single.

Soelter stole second, went to third on a ground out and scored the Cardinals’ second run when the Eagles had a fielding error, which would have been the final out of the inning.

The Eagles scored a run in the third to make it a 2-1 game, but the Cardinals tacked on two more runs in the fourth to increase their lead to 4-1.

Joseph Hackett had a run-scoring ground out, plating Levi Pooley, who singled. Hackett later moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a fielding error and scored on the ground out.

Trevor Maakestad, who reached second base on the fielding error and advanced to third on a ground out, scored on Lincoln Becker’s two-out single to stretch the lead to three runs.

Once again, the Eagles scored a single run in the top of the sixth, but the Cardinals responded with the final two runs of game in the bottom of the inning.

Hackett singled and courtesy runner Carson Pomerenke scored and Meyerdirk, who reached via his third walk of the game, scored on Lincoln Becker’s two-run single.

Becker led the Cardinals’ six-hit attack with two singles. Meyerdirk, Soelter, Pooley and Hackett had the other hits.

Meyerdirk was never retired, adding three walks to his single in his four plate appearances. Becker also had a game-high three RBIs, while Soelter and Hackett also had an RBI.

Fairmont (8-0) travels to St. Peter for a 5:30 p.m. conference game today against the Saints at Veteran’s Park, while the Eagles (4-4) hit the road today for a 5:30 p.m. game at Blue Earth Area.

WDM       001 001 0–2 5 2

FMT         200 202 x–6 6 5

Chayton Struck (LP), Quintin Tietz (5) and Brady Espenson. Nate Soelter (WP), Brendan Schmidtke (7) and Joseph Hackett.

LOB–Windom Area 8, Fairmont 8. 2B–Chayton Struck (WDM). SAC–Tucker Renquist (WDM). SF–Josh Garrison (WDM).

Fairmont scored in four of its five innings to beat Windom Area 10-0 in a run-ruled junior varsity game Monday in Fairmont.

Merrit Pomerenke walked four times and scored three runs to top Fairmont, while Nolan Anderson and Nolyn Goerndt each had two hits. Anderson scored once and drove in two runs, while Goerndt doubled and scored twice.

Pomerenke was the winning pitcher, giving up only two hits, no runs, walked two and struck out two in five innings of work.