Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye Junior Legion’s Jon Petermann fields a fly ball during a Junior Upper Midwest Classic baseball game against Wayzata at Essig on Friday.

ESSIG — A handful of bunts and timely hits were all it took for Sleepy Eye Junior Legion to come away with a 2-0 victory over Wayzata in a Junior Upper Midwest Classic baseball game at Essig Ballpark.

Sleepy Eye pitcher Brandon Schmitz threw a complete-game shutout in the win, collecting six strikeouts while allowing three hits.

Wayzata pitcher Josh Mathieson took the loss with four strikeouts, all in the first two innings, while allowing five hits and one earned run in six innings.

At the plate, Jon Petermann was 1 for 3 with an RBI, while Cody Schultz was 1 for 2 with a run scored. Marcus Martinez had an RBI in the game.

Both pitchers had a strong starts to the game, with neither team allowing a player past second until the fourth inning, when both teams left a baserunner stranded on third.

In the bottom of the fifth, Sleepy Eye’s Kam Kosak reached first after being hit by a pitch, with courtesy runner Cole Eckstein coming in to run for him. Eckstein was advanced to second on a single by Isaac Lendt, then to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kessler Severson. Finally, a sacrifice fly to right field by Petermann brought Eckstein home for the first score of the game.

“We’re a multi-faceted team,” Sleepy Eye head coach Brandon Streich said. “We can hit with power, we’ve got a lot of speed, and in tight games like this we’re capable of playing small ball. We did a really good job of that today. I like putting pressure on the defense and putting balls into play, and we took advantage of that.”

A similar sequence repeated in the bottom of the sixth, when a single by Schultz was followed up by Talan Helget reaching on an error, moving Schultz over to third. A sacrifice fly by Martinez brought Schultz home, increasing the Sleepy Eye lead to 2-0.

Schmitz allowed a double at the top of the seventh, but retired the next three batters to gain the victory.

Streich said the team needed to maintain the energy they had this game, something they were lacking in their 4-3 loss to Fairmont earlier in the day.

“I was disappointed in their energy in the first game this morning,” he said. “But this game here I thought we had a lot of energy. Generally when things are going like that in the dugout, and the guys have that ‘rah rah’ and we have a little bit of that swagger, we can play pretty well. I think as long as we bring it to the game tomorrow, I think we’ll be OK.”

Sleepy Eye is scheduled to continue play the JUMC Saturday against Maple Grove at 9:30 a.m. at Mueller Park.