Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye Post 7’s Dominic Helget delivers a pitch in a legion playoff game against Fairmont on Friday afternoon at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — After having their bats cooled down on Thursday against Mankato American in a shutout loss, Sleepy Eye Post 7 rebounded nicely on Friday afternoon, blanking Fairmont 7-0 in Division 1, Sub-State 2 legion baseball playoff action at Mueller Park.

The win moves Sleepy Eye to a 1:30 p.m. game Saturday at Mueller Park against New Ulm Gold. If Post 7 loses, they are eliminated from the playoffs.

Sleepy Eye starting pitcher Dominic Helget rolled through Fairmont without much trouble, getting solid defense behind him and an offensive attack from his teammates to help keep pressure off of him. He pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and three walks for no runs with five strikeouts.

Zach Haala pitched the final out for Post 7.

“Knowing that I’ve got extra runs and they kept putting them on for me during the game, it’s easy for me to go out there and throw strikes,” Helget said.

Carter Brinkman was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle to lead Post 7’s offense, getting a triple, a double, a single and a pair of RBIs. Jacob Berg was 3 for 3 for Sleepy Eye with a double and two RBIs, while Nick Labat was 2 for 3 with a triple and two runs scored.

Brinkman put Sleepy Eye on the board in the first inning with an RBI triple to right field, scoring Kyle Domeier for a 1-0 lead. A sacrifice fly from Nathan Walter then scored Brinkman for a 2-0 Sleepy Eye lead.

After Labat tripled to lead off the fourth, an RBI single by Berg put Post 7 up 3-0 before an RBI double from Berg and an RBI single from Spencer Hoffman in the sixth put Post 7 ahead 5-0. An RBI single by Brinkman and a sac fly by Berg in the seventh led to the final score.

Helget escaped trouble twice on Friday, first in the second inning after back-to-back singles and an error filled the bases with no outs. He was able to settle down, however, getting a strikeout sandwiched in between a pair of fly outs to escape the jam.

In the seventh, he allowed back-to-back walks but got a strikeout and a fly out before Haala got the final out on a diving stop by Domeier at second base and a throw to first.

“I just attacked the zone, moved the ball around a little bit,” Helget said. “[Fairmont] never really had very good contact … and [we] played good defense.”

Post 7 faces an uphill battle as another loss will eliminate them from contention. Helget said the team will have to take chances, however, and do whatever it takes to win.

“[We need to] take chances, try to do whatever we can to win, be smart on the bases, score as many runs as we can and play good defense,” he said.