Photo courtesy of NE Sports/Nicole Evers Sleepy Eye Legion Post 7 celebrates its Division 2 American Legion State Baseball Tourmament championship win over Eden Valley-Watkins on Sunday afternoon at Gilbertson Field in Roseau.

ROSEAU — The Sleepy Eye Legion Post 7 bats weren’t the driving force in the team’s prior two victories in the Division II American Legion State Baseball Tournament, but they certainly were on Sunday.

The Post 7 offense came to life early and often Sunday against Eden Valley-Watkins and Sleepy Eye was rewarded with a state title in the process after a 10-5 win in the state championship game at Gilbertson Field.

Sunday’s championship win was the culmination of a strong season put together by players from both Sleepy Eye Public and Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School.

“It’s absolutely huge for the city,” Sleepy Eye head coach Zach Haala said. “I mean, I’m just looking forward to football this fall with these guys, it’s the same group of guys, the majority of them will be playing together this fall. It’s the first time both schools will be combined for football, obviously that’s a big thing in the town. So to see them come together and win a state championship in baseball in the summer, that’s incredible. They’re going to carry that right into the fall season, I assume. So just to see these guys come out, have a great bond with each other and do some very special things was awesome to see.”

Post 7 had just one hit Friday night in a 2-1 win over Roseau and then four hits in a 4-3 nine-inning win over La Crescent Saturday night in the semifinals.

In the state championship game, Sleepy Eye racked up seven hits in the second inning and finished the game with 14 hits.

“We were due [laughs],” Haala said. “We were due for that to happen. And we came into that game knowing that Eden Valley-Watkins was a very good hitting team and that we were going to need to score runs in order to win that game. Our pitching was absolutely stellar all the way throughout the tournament with Nick [Mielke], Mark [Anderson], Winsten [Nienhaus], [Brandon] Schmitz and then Arian [Saenz] closing it out there in the end in the last game.

“But Eden Valley-Watkins, very good hitting team, so we came into that game thinking, ‘Hey, we’ve had five hits the last two games, snuck out with a couple wins.’ And, yeah, we needed to get the bats going. I think we came with a good energy and as soon as a couple hits started happening in that second inning, we just built on each other.”

Sleepy Eye starting righty Brandon Schmitz finished 6 1/3 innings with seven hits allowed. He struck out three.

Saenz pitched the remainder of the seventh inning, allowing two hits and two unearned runs.

After a quick 1-2-3 top of the first, Sleepy Eye came alive in the top of the second and batted around, knocking starting pitcher Xander Willner off the mound after 1 1/3 innings of work. Willner gave up four hits during that second inning and was relieved by Landon Neiman.

Sleepy Eye didn’t take it any easier on Neiman and continued to put the barrel on the ball. Neiman allowed three more hits and the inning came to a close with an 8-0 lead for Sleepy Eye.

During the eight-run inning, Talan Helget and Nick Mielke each had a two-run single, Austin Uecker and Caden Evers each had an RBI single, Mark Anderson had a sac fly and an error scored another run.

After Saenz got a hold of a pitch but flew out to end the first inning, he was confident the team could start getting hits to drop.

“I think the thing to look to there, our No. 3 hitter Arian Saenz, he’s a kid who doesn’t say a whole lot, kind of keeps his head straight,” Haala said. “He came into the dugout after absolutely mashing one in the gap that got caught in that first inning and he comes into the dugout and says, ‘Guys, we’re going to be on them.’ And from that moment forward, guys were ready and they were, they were on them and obviously, that turned out well for us and we got that energy and we built upon it.”

Evers had two singles that second inning and was the team’s spark plug with a leadoff hit. His second single to right-center brought in a run. He led Sleepy Eye at the plate, going 3 for 4.

“Caden has been unbelievable for us all year,” Haala said. “To have a kid like that who is really controlling the game, I think our pitcher’s stats are great, but I think there’s something to be said about his catching ability and his ability to call games because of our pitcher’s stats. He controlled the game, kept runners in check all season long and then obviously, was one of our most consistent bats at the plate and one of our clutchest bats at the plate. So to see him be a leader this entire season was extremely impressive. We were very lucky to have a guy like him on the team.”

Eden Valley-Watkins got a run back in the bottom of the second after an error and one more in the third on a sac fly by Willner to trail 8-2. Eden Valley-Watkins got another run in the third on an RBI single by Sam Nistler.

Mielke drove in two more runs in the seventh on a base hit to left-center for a 10-3 Sleepy Eye lead. Eden Valley-Watkins got those two runs back in the bottom of the seventh on an error, but a flyout to Petermann in center field ended the game and started the celebration.

Helget finished the game going 3 for 5 with two RBIs, while Mielke was 2 for 4 with three RBIs, Petermann was 2 for 4 and Uecker was 2 for 5.