Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye pitcher Marcus Martinez delivers a pitch during a Tomahawk Conference baseball game with New Ulm Cathedral on Monday at Sleepy Eye Baseball Park.

SLEEPY EYE — If there’s one thing Sleepy Eye learned after opening the season with a loss to New Ulm Cathedral, it’s that good things come from quality defense.

Three and a half weeks removed from a 7-6 loss to Cathedral on April 4, Sleepy Eye picked up its ninth consecutive win and payback in the process after an 8-1 Tomahawk Conference win over Cathedral at Sleepy Eye Baseball Park on Monday.

The April 4 game at Mueller Park, which opened the season for both teams, saw the Greyhounds tie it at 6-all in the sixth after a costly error before winning on a walk-off bloop single by Joey Schugel in the seventh.

On a cool and — at times drizzly — Monday evening, Sleepy Eye didn’t commit a single error. That helped starting righty Marcus Martinez turn in a complete-game effort in the win.

Martinez struck out five and allowed five hits and no walks for one earned run.

“Good defense behind Marcus and he threw outstanding,” Sleepy Eye head coach Aaron Nesvold said. “He threw short days rest for him coming back, and so for him to be as efficient as he was was huge. He kept the ball in the zone and made them use their sticks, and we played some pretty good defense behind him.”

Martinez said he mixed up his fastballs in the win and benefited on his team’s clean play in the field.

“I was just throwing a combination of my four-seam and two-seam,” Martinez said. “Luckily they missed it, and whenever they didn’t, my fielders were there to clean it all up.”

Leading Sleepy Eye at the plate was Winsten Nienhaus, who was 2 for 3 with a run scored, while Isaac Lendt doubled and drove in a pair of runs.

Levi Franta took the loss for the Greyhounds in 3 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and a walk for six earned runs while striking out two. Franta ran into trouble in a two-error fourth that also saw the Sleepy Eye bats erupt for six hits.

Trailing 2-1 entering the bottom of the fourth and with just one earned run to his name at that point, Franta started the inning with a strikeout before Kayden Klein lined a single into right field. Gavin Strong then doubled to right to bring in Klein before a pop up was dropped for an error in shallow center field.

A single by Austin Uecker filled the bases before Lendt had a two-run double to put Sleepy Eye up 5-1. Cody Schultz singled in Uecker, but the Greyhounds committed a throwing error trying to get Schultz out in between first and second, allowing Lendt to score and Schultz to end up at third.

Caden Evers ended the scoring with an RBI single to right, which also ended Franta’s day on the mound as Schugel entered in relief. Schugel pitched the remaining 2 2/3 innings and allowed two hits and two walks while striking out three.

“Levi’s a good pitcher, he’s a competitor out there,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “We didn’t make some plays behind him and it kind of unraveled on us a little bit and that happened quick. All of the sudden it was 8-1 and we weren’t able to respond after that.”

With the clean defense Sleepy Eye had, Cathedral saw the opposite as it had five errors in the game.

“We didn’t field the ball very well,” Woitas said. “Tough day to field the ball a little bit, too, not making excuses, but we didn’t make the plays when we needed to and it kind of snowballed on us. And even some of their hits, those are plays that we typically make … We fielded the ball well all year and I think that we’ll bounce back pretty quickly.”

Colin Anderson and Elliott Schabert each went 1 for 3 with a double to lead the Greyhounds at the plate.

Cathedral got on the board right away in the first after a leadoff single and stolen base by Jake Finstad later led to an RBI single to left by Caleb Forstner. After that two-hit inning, Martinez had three consecutive 1-2-3 innings before Brock Wellman collected an infield single to lead off the fifth.

No damage came of that, however, as Martinez continued to work the zone and benefit on some nice plays behind him.

Sleepy Eye tied it at 1-all in the bottom of the first on a throwing error that scored Uecker. Uecker put Sleepy Eye up 2-1 in the second on a sac fly that scored Landon Wendinger, who led off with a single.

Nesvold said it’s uncommon to see that many errors from the Greyhounds, but he was happy to see his players take advantage of it and continue to put the ball in play.

“Levi’s a good pitcher and that’s not a Cathedral norm to have [five] errors, and we took advantage of those situations,” Nesvold said. “We’ve seen some pretty good pitchers the last week and Levi’s one of them, and we’ll see a couple good guys later in the week for St. Mary’s.

“It’s good that we’re putting the ball in play. And that’s kind of what we’ve been going with, our mindset is just put the ball in play, make them make the plays and if they can’t make them, then we get some extra baserunners.”

Sleepy Eye (9-1, 9-1) is scheduled to play a doubleheader with Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Thursday, while Cathedral (7-3, 6-3) is slated to take on Minnesota Valley Lutheran at Johnson Park on Thursday.