NEW ULM - Sleepy Eye lost both of its games on Saturday in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic. Maple Grove defeated Sleepy Eye 19-0 in the first game of the day and Sleepy Eye then fell to Hutchinson 11-7 in the afternoon.
After being shut out earlier in the day, Sleepy Eye's bats came alive in the first inning in its matchup against Hutchinson.
Seven of Sleepy Eye's 14 hits came in the first inning and that led to five runs as it jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. Luke Heiderscheidt, John Mangen, Carter Krzmarzick, Mike Hirsch and Jake Mielke each had an RBI single in the inning. Brandon Helget had a lead-off double and Jon Kopacek added a single.
Article Photos
Staff photo by Steve Muscatello
Maple Grove’s Austin Mathison (34) touches first base as Sleepy Eye first baseman Carter Krzmarzick waits for the ball during Maple Grove’s win in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic Saturday at Mueller Park in New Ulm.
Hutchinson responded with a run in the home half of the first, then two more runs in the second cut Sleepy Eye's lead to two runs. Hutchinson tied it 6-6 in the third inning followed up by a three-run fourth that put the game out of reach as Sleepy Eye failed to score in the final three innings.
"We knew they could score runs - we faced them three times before," Sleepy Eye head coach Dusty Mangen said. "We knew that five runs weren't going to be enough. We tacked on some more, but they just kept getting rally after rally and we could never get that big out when we needed it. All the credit goes to them, they hit the ball really well."