Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Sean Doyle of Wells slides into home before the tag of Sleepy Eye catcher Nathan Walter on Thursday in Mankato. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

MANKATO — Errors plagued the Sleepy Eye VFW baseball team in its 5-2 loss to Wells in its opening game of the VFW District 2 tournament on Thursday at Franklin Rogers Ballpark in Mankato.

Post 800 committed four errors — two of which led to runs on the scoreboard for Wells.

“We gave them too many chances and they took advantage,” Sleepy Eye coach Brandon Streich said. “When you give teams more than two outs in an inning, they’re going to score more often than not.”

Dallas Bauer took the loss for Sleepy Eye in six innings pitched, having given up five runs, three earned on seven hits. Bauer managed to tally eight strikeouts compared to just two walks, but the defense behind him was unable to make things any easier for him.

“Dallas was throwing strikes and we just didn’t make enough plays behind him to give us our best shot,” Streich said.

Post 1778 struck first in the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back singles from Colby Klocek and Zack Niebuhr. After advancing to scoring position on a sacrifice groundout for the first out, Klocek scored on a wild pitch before Niebuhr came in on a sacrifice flyout by A.J. Kloos to give Wells a 2-0 lead.

Joe Bushlack later scored following a two-out error to give Wells a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third and Niebuhr scored after reaching on an error in the fourth.

Landon Strong delivered the lone key hit for Sleepy Eye with a two-RBI single in the top of the fifth inning that cut Wells’ lead to 4-2.

However, Niebuhr batted in Gavin Sonnek in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Wells a three-run cushion that stuck until the final out.

Sam Zebro got the complete-game win for Wells, having given up just two unearned runs on three hits.

Sleepy Eye drops to the consolation bracket for a 4:30 p.m. game on Friday at Mankato East High School.

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Sleepy Eye 000 020 0 — 2 3 4

Wells 201 101 x — 5 7 3

Bauer and Walter; Zebro and Niebuhr.

W – Zebro (W) 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 102 pitches

L – Bauer (S) 6 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 100 pitches

Leading hitters – Sleepy Eye: L Strong 1-4 2 RBI; Wells: Klocek 2-3 1 R 1 K, Niebuhr 2-4 1 RBI 1 R.