Staff photo by Fritz Busch Sleepy Eye’s Avery Stevens delivers a pitch in the Section 2A championship game at Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato. Sleepy Eye advanced to state with a win against BOLD.

MANKATO — The Sleepy Eye Indians punched their ticket to the state baseball tournament by remaining undefeated in the Section 2A playoffs at Franklin Rogers Park on Thursday.

The Indians defeated the No. 1 seeded BOLD Warriors for the second time of the playoffs with a 3-2 victory. The Warriors had to beat the Indians twice to move on.

Sleepy Eye has waited 18 years to return to the state tournament after winning the state title in the 2000 season.

Sleepy Eye put one run across in the bottom half of the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie, leaving two runners stranded. Nathan Walter scored the go-ahead run, becoming the game-winning run on an RBI walk by Jacob Berg.

“Anything to score me at all, they put Landon on so we just had to have confidence in the bottom of our line up and we got that done,” Walter said. “It feels great never being here before so I can’t wait for it we just have to play our ball game.”

Walter led off the sixth inning with a bloop single into right field to get things going for the Indians. Carter Brinkman received the bunt sign from head coach Aaron Nesvold with Walter on first.

The Indians have had success in the section playoffs with the small ball and aggressive base running.

“One thing that I have learned is you bunt until they figure it out then you just keep doing it,” Sleepy Eye head coach Aaron Nesvold said. “You put that pressure on them which is huge, they have to field it and think about where to throw it.”

Brinkman reached first as he placed a bunt down the third base line when the Warriors failed to get the out.

“I knew we needed that run, I saw the bunt sign and I figured any way to get a run so I was going to sacrifice myself,” Brinkman said. “When I got it down I just ran as hard as I could to try to get on, things went my way as I got on first with zero outs.”

A late throw to get Brinkman out at first was low and got past the first basemen’s glove as Walter took third on the miscue.

“I knew that was a big play, it saved us an out and two guys on base and all we needed was one run but the more insurance runs we can get the better,” Brinkman said.

BOLD was not charged with an error on the play as the Indian runner reached now with runners at the corners. Landon Strong was intentionally walked to fill the bases with no outs for the Indians. Stong was a threat already having hit a home run in the second inning.

Sleepy Eye’s Avery Stevens was given a chance to help his cause but he struck out

Berg’s walk scored Walter before being doubled up on a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning and the threat.

Sleepy Eye’s Stevens finished with a three-up, three-down top half of the seventh inning as the Indians celebrated the final out of the section playoffs. Stevens pitched seven innings with eight strikeouts. He allowed six hits.

“When we come to play we know that we just need to make the routine plays, nothing fancy just if we do the routine plays and play our ball then we will play some good defense,” Brinkman said.

Sleepy Eye was the first team to score with two runs in their half of the second inning from two hits. Strong pulled the first pitch he saw over the left field fence with plenty of room to spare for the first hit of the game. Stevens singled into right, following the home run, to add another runner for the Indians. Courtesy runner Palmer Hittesdorf took over on the bases, reaching third on two wild pitches.

Sleepy Eye’s Kyle Domeier flew out into right with a ball hit deep enough to bring Hittesdorf in from third for the RBI.

BOLD knotted the game up at 2-2 in their half of the fourth inning with a hit and an error charged to the Indians to put the runners on. Sleepy Eye then recorded two quick outs with a strikeout and a fly out to center.

Sleepy will play in the 2018 Sate Tournament starting on Thursday with the seedings being determined later this week.