Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke Sleepy Eye’s Nolan Domeier lays down a sacrifice bunt on Tuesday in a Section 2A playoff baseball game at Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD — Despite jumping out to a 3-0 lead, Sleepy Eye was unable to close the deal.

Springfield scored four runs from the sixth inning on and defeated Sleepy Eye 4-3 in Section 2A baseball action on Tuesday.

Brendan Buerkle’s infield single in the bottom of the eighth scored Dylan Batzlaff with two outs and the Tigers will now play at No. 1 BOLD at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Sleepy Eye will also play on Thursday in an elimination bracket game.

Tori Helget pitched in relief to earn the win. He went 2 2/3 innings and he struck out five and allowed three hits. Mason Leonard pitched the first 5 1/3 innings. He struck out eight and allowed one hit and three runs, two of them coming in the top of the sixth in which Sleepy Eye scored two runs and took a 3-0 lead.

Jackson Huiras was tough again for the Indians on the mound. He struck out eight and allowed four runs on four hits in the losing effort.

After loading up the bases in the top of the first, Leonard stranded the bases loaded by getting back-to-back strikeouts and a grounder to end the threat. The Indians scored when Caden Evers scored in the top of the second for the Indians on a sacrifice fly by Erizen Traconis to put them ahead 1-0. Huiras was cruising along, holding the Tigers hitless until the fourth inning when Helget reached on an infield single that hit Huiras’ glove and landed behind him.

Helget then stole second and took third on a balk, but he didn’t score after a strikeout and a flyout to right field.

Sleepy Eye then added two runs in the top of the sixth, with Kadon Strong and Arian Saenz scoring to end Leonard’s stint on the mound. With runners on second and third, Helget came in and got two strikeouts to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers got three runs as Jakob Nachreiner, Helget and Buerkle all scored.

That set the stage for the bottom of the eighth and the Tigers will try to keep the playoff run rolling against the No. 1 seed.