SLEEPY EYE — Dallas Bauer shook off a first inning in which he gave up two runs, then settled in and allowed just two baserunners the rest of the way as Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s defeated Nicollet 12-2 in five innings in nonconference baseball action on Monday.

Bauer allowed three hits in five innings. He struck out seven and allowed two runs to earn the win.

“After those errors in the first inning, we responded well,” Bauer said after the Knights committed two errors behind him early on. “We put the ball in play and I just got in the groove.”

After Anthony Macias drove in Riley Hulke and Ben Radke in the first inning on a single for Nicollet, the Knights got a run back when Kyle Borth’s single scored Nick Labat.

The Knights added three more runs in the second inning, with Labat singling to score two. Labat later scored on an error to make it 4-1.

The Knights kept giving Bauer run support in the third inning as Labat drove in two more runners on another hit. St. Mary’s tacked on two runs in the fourth and Borth ended the game in the bottom of the fifth with a three-run home run to make it 12-2.

Labat was 3 for 4 with three runs scored, four RBIs and two stolen bases and Borth was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and four RBIs, including the three-run home run.

Bauer also had a single and a double and Kyle Goblirsch scored a pair of runs.

St. Mary’s (6-5) hosts Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Thursday in a doubleheader.