After multiple bouts of rain at Johnson Field, the second rain delay of the JUMC championship game turned permanent as Mankato National Junior Legion and Sleepy Eye Junior Legion were forced to finish the tourney as co-champions.

Sleepy Eye topped Osseo 3-1 early Sunday afternoon to advance to the title game, while National beat Wayzata 3-2 Sunday to advance to the championship.

Rain delayed the start to Sunday’s final day of the JUMC, and it ended up ending the championship game prematurely in the fifth inning. National led 5-3 heading into the fifth, but Sleepy Eye put together a strong three-run fourth inning to battle out of a 5-0 hole.

With two outs in the top of the fifth and Sleepy Eye’s Talan Helget on third, Marcus Martinez saw his at-bat halted for the second time in the game due to a downpour.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye Junior Legion's Marcus Martinez heads to the dugout during a rain delay in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic championship game with Mankato National Junior Legion on Sunday at Johnson Park in New Ulm.

After another 10 minutes of heavy rain and pools forming in the infield, the decision was made to call the game and award the championship to both teams.

While Sleepy Eye didn’t get to complete its comeback, head coach Brandon Streich had full confidence in his team’s ability to earn the win if the weather allowed.

“As strong as we are at the plate and defensively, and if our pitchers throw strikes, I like our chances in any game,” Streich said. “We could be down by five or up by five and I have full confidence that we can win the game. We have a bunch of kids that can do a little bit of everything.”

In Sleepy Eye’s three-run fourth inning, Helget reached on a one-out walk before Martinez took the batter’s box. One strike later, rain returned and forced a 10-minute delay.

The little break in the action didn’t hurt Sleepy Eye, however. After Martinez finished his at-bat with a flyout to right field, Brandon Schmitz singled on a hit-and-run to move Helget to third.

Kayden Klein then singled to right to bring in Helget before Kameron Kosak doubled to deep center field, driving in two more runs and bringing Sleepy Eye fans to their feet. Kosak was the first to get Sleepy Eye in the hit column an inning earlier with a single to right and finished the game 2 for 2.

Ben Hoehn started for National and was knocked out of the game by Sleepy Eye in the fourth as he finished with 3 2/3 innings of work. He allowed all three earned runs on five hits and two walks while striking out one.

National struck for four runs off Sleepy Eye starter Tyler Mathiowetz in the first inning, led by Cole Olsen’s RBI double to center. National then added another run in the second for a quick 5-0 lead.

National used its bats and speed to take the early lead, collecting six hits off Mathiowetz while stealing five bases in three innings. Mathiowetz also found the dirt a couple of times in the first inning, which allowed National to take a couple of extra bases.

After a tough first inning, Mathiowetz settled down more in the second and third innings.

“I think his nerves got to him a little bit in that first inning, because one he settled in, he did his job for us,” Streich said of Mathiowetz. “He went out there, ate some innings for us and I thought he threw well. The first inning, it just took him a little bit to get going, but once he settled in, I thought he did just fine and I couldn’t ask for anything more from him in that situation as a little freshman against a team like Mankato West in a championship game. It’s probably a position he’s never been in before and I thought he handled it just fine.”

Cole Eckstein pitched the fifth for Sleepy Eye and he didn’t need to spend much time on the mound either. A five-pitch outing led to a 1-2-3 inning for Eckstein and his squad, setting them up for the top of the fifth.

“[Cole’s] kind of another high competitor, a high-motor kid, he’s always asking, ‘When can I pitch, when can I pitch? Hey, Streich, am I pitching? Am I pitching?'” Streich said. “He always wants an opportunity. And every time he’s gotten an opportunity, he hasn’t ran away from it. So for him to take that head-on and go out there and throw strikes against a very good Mankato team, that was impressive. He hasn’t pitched a whole lot at the junior legion level, so I was a little hesitant, but he went out there and trusted his defense and you saw the results. I thought he did well.”

This was the second time a Sleepy Eye Junior Legion team played in the JUMC after making its first appearance as a junior legion team last season.

“I’ve always liked competing in this tournament with small-town teams like Sleepy Eye and New Ulm,” Streich said. “And you kind of outreach to teams like Osseo and Maple Grove, Wayzata, Mankato, you see these bigger teams and it goes to show you how strong our baseball is and how proud we are of our rich tradition of having strong baseball in this area. With our success around here lately, they know that when they get Sleepy Eye on their schedule, they’re thinking, ‘Yep, that’s a good baseball team, that’s a good baseball program.’

“And I think that’s the representation that we’re trying to grow here and it’s only getting better. I told the kids, too, that no team’s going to be overlooking us anymore because when they come to this area, they know that we’re going to be coming for them.”

In Sleepy Eye’s win over Osseo earlier in the day, it scored all three runs in the third inning on three Osseo errors. Austin Uecker led Sleepy Eye with two hits and two RBIs in that game, while Isaac Lendt got the complete-game win on the mound, allowing three hits while striking out three.