File photo by Steve Muscatello Sleepy Eye’s Landon Strong has been a key for the Indians as they are making their first state tournament trip since 2000. The Indians open tournament play on Thursday in Chaska.

SLEEPY EYE — For the first time in 18 seasons, the Sleepy Eye Indians baseball team is playing in the Class A tournament.

The Indians, 16-5, earned that honor on Thursday when they defeated BOLD 3-2 at Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato for the Section 2A title.

“This is huge for the program,” Indians head coach Aaron Nesvold said. “It was a goal of mine since I took over as head coach 10 years ago. We have had our ups and downs in those years so to finally get to that pinnacle of where we want to be is a testament to the kids and the coaching staff for all of the work they have put in. I knew with the amount of seniors (eight) that we had and the work ethic of those kids, I knew we were going to be a good team. We have had juniors step up this year which added to it. The expectations were high. And once we got by the first round of our section playoffs, the monkey was off of our back and were able to relax and play good baseball. That was the most pressure on the team — we had lost two or three years in a row in that first round.”

That good baseball included knocking off second-seeded Springfield and followed that up be beating third-seeded New Ulm Cathedral behind the no-hit pitching effort from Jacob Berg.

The seventh-seeded Indians followed that up by knocking off previously unbeaten BOLD behind Avery Stevens, 4-1.

“The kids had felt that they were underdogs all year and they wanted to go out and prove they were a good ball cub,” Nesvold said.

And the Indians proved just that behind the mound duo of Stevens and Berg who have been nothing short of lights-out. In Berg’s last 25 innings he has allowed just three runs.

Stevens leads the Indians’ pitching staff with a stellar 8-1 mark in 53 2/3 innings, he has fanned 90 opposing batters and has a 1.82 ERA.

“Getting to the state means a lot,” Stevens said. “We have been working very hard since we were 12 years old for this. We all have been coming together.”

Stevens also carries a .417 batting average with 14 RBI. Junior Landon Strong leads with a .473 average followed by Carter Brinkmann at .436.

“Our goal at the start of the year was to get to the state and even win the state,” he said. “We accomplished getting to state and now we are working on the other part.”

The last time the Indians got to state in 2000, they did just that.

Stevens said that perhaps the key to the Indians’ success came when they defeated second-seeded Springfield 11-5 and then downed New Ulm Cathedral 1-0 behind Berg’s no-hitter.

“We just kept on going for BOLD,” Stevens said.

And for Berg, getting to the state tournament may mean a little more to him than to others.

“I always dreamed about playing in the state,” he said. “My dad, Chad, played in the state for Sleepy Eye in 1997. He felt it would be pretty cool if he was not the only Berg to get to the state.”

Berg, who has pitched 25 1/3 innings, has a 4-3 mark and has a microscopic ERA of .553.

“Playing in the state means more to me because I have always wanted to be like my dad,” he said. “My dad is my hero.”