File photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye Junior Legion’s Mark Anderson slides into third during an East Sub, Subdistrict playoff game at Mueller Park on July 12.

ELY– In a classic pitching duel, Esko’s Sam Haugen bested Sleepy Eye’s Mark Anderson.

Esko plated a run in the bottom of the third when they used both of its hits in the game and a fielder’s choice to score the lone run of the game in a 1-0 win over Post 7 in the DII Junior Legion Baseball State Tournament.

Haugen got the win, striking out three and allowing just one hit — a leadoff single to Arian Saenz — in the seventh.

Saenz took second on a Talan Helget sacrifice bunt and raced to third on a pased ball with one out.

But Haugen retired the next two Sleepy Eye hitters to end the game.

The end of the game didn’t come without some controversy, however.

With two outs, Owen Weiss popped the ball up near the first baseman and the foul line. After the ball was dropped by the first baseman near foul territory, Saenz came home for what Sleepy Eye thought was the tying run.

The play was overturned, however, and ruled a foul ball.

Sleepy Eye head coach Brandon Streich said that while he was disappointed with the call, he didn’t want to put the loss all on it and said it was a great game all around.

“I look at it as if, ‘Well, if we had more than one hit, maybe we’d have won the game,'” Streich said. “But at the same time, they only had two hits, and one of them was a soft blooper in between second and shortstop and their second hit was a bunt single where they tried to sacrifice the guy over. … There was really only two hard hit balls the entire game for both teams. It was a fantastically pitched game and both teams played great defense.”

Sleepy Eye now moves to elimination play at 9 a.m. Friday morning when they meet Morris.