File photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye VFW’s Jonny Petermann hits a chopper in the dirt during a JUMC game with Harrisburg in Essig on June 25.

SLEEPY EYE — With a variety of quality pitchers and a disciplined approach at the plate, the Sleepy Eye VFW baseball team has been tough to beat this season.

With an 18-3 record and riding an eight-game winning streak, Sleepy Eye is rolling at the perfect time this season. The team’s last loss came on June 25 during a Junior Upper Midwest Classic game in Essig when Harrisburg walked in the winning run to top Sleepy Eye 5-4.

Despite that loss on a walk, Sleepy Eye has been good at striking batters out and keeping walks allowed to a minimum this year. As a team, Sleepy Eye has racked up 137 strikeouts on the mound to just 56 walks allowed.

The key success on the mound this summer comes from Sleepy Eye Public’s Marcus Martinez, who is 4-0 with a .37 ERA, 18 strikeouts and two walks, and Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Mark Anderson, who is 3-0 with 28 strikeouts, 15 walks and a .62 ERA. Sleepy Eye Public’s Arian Saenz is also 3-0 this summer on the mound with a 1.27 ERA, 32 strikeouts and 10 walks.

Sleepy Eye has also gotten quality starts from Nick Mielke (2-1, 2.44 ERA) and Brandon Schmitz (3-1, 2.10 ERA) this summer, with a host of other arms that can be counted on when needed as well.

In addition to how much work his players put in to make this season successful, Sleepy Eye VFW head coach Brandon Streich said that the team’s pitching has been fantastic this summer.

“Our pitching all year has been fantastic,” Streich said. “We throw strikes and we get first-pitch strikes, get the defense involved, and we don’t give up a lot of runs because our pitchers do throw strikes and we get great defense. … We’ve got a lot of guys that throw strikes and have a lot of confidence in our defense. I will reiterate throwing strikes. As a team, we have a 62.5% strike percentage, and of that, we’ve got a 61% first-pitch strike percentage. Any time you throw strikes and keep your defense active, I think you’re going to be pretty good as a pitcher, especially at this level.”

On the other side of the coin, Sleepy Eye’s offense has made things easier on its pitchers by scoring runs and getting on base any way possible. Leading the team at the plate this summer has been Nolan Domeier, who is hitting .519 with 22 runs scored and five RBIs. In addition to being one of the team’s top arms, Saenz has also been one of the top hitters, hitting .474 with six RBIs and three doubles.

Jonny Petermann (.439 BA, 14 RBIs), Talan Helget (.393 BA), Kaleb Butenhoff (.368 BA) and Austin Uecker (.364 BA) have also been some other key hitters for Sleepy Eye, with the team’s batting average sitting at a strong .335.

“It’s easy to be a pitcher when you’re pitching with a lead,” Streich said. “The way we’re hitting the bats right now and running the bases really well, good things happen. We have all sorts of guys scoring runs, getting RBIs, coming up with big hits. I honestly feel confident in all 21 guys that anytime somebody has to miss a game or if somebody gets injured that we have the depth. I have confidence in any bat that I can stick in. We’re seeing the ball well, and we don’t strike out every often. We put the ball in play and we hit the ball hard, and that’s kind of attributed to the players having good approaches at the same time.”

With seedings expected to come out Thursday for playoffs, Streich said that he’s very confident with his group heading into district tournament action next week, but it will be important for his players to keep a level head.

“We have a lot of confidence,” Streich said. “The coaching staff and the players have tons of confidence in what we can do and what we have the potential to do, but I think it’s a good thing that the kids have had a very level, montone kind of mindset. They know what their job is, and I think that the most important thing coming up at districts will be not to get too high and not to get too low. You kind of have to sway the balances a little bit, and we just play our game and I think we’ll be okay.”

Before playoffs begin, however, Sleepy Eye will host Mankato West for a 10 a.m. doubleheader on Saturday and then travel to take on New Ulm Junior Legion Gold at 7 p.m. on Monday at Mueller Park.