Sleepy Eye won 12-3 over Marshall earlier in the day and will play New Ulm Junior Legion Saturday at 10 a.m. at Mueller Park.

“Definitely guys getting put into uncomfortable positions and stepping up big time,” Sleepy Eye head coach Zach Haala said. “We had Austin Uecker throw today, he hasn’t thrown for us all summer yet. But we wanted to take a risk and go deep in this tournament, so you have to have guys like that come through ready to pitch, and he definitely performed.

“Also have guys like Tyler Mathiowetz, making things happen on the basepaths for us. He doesn’t get an opportunity to play in the field too much for us, or have many at-bats, but he has opportunities to run bases for us and he makes a huge difference. Things like that, guys just stepping up when their name is called is how we win games like that.”

Uecker took home the win in the game, striking out one while allowing three earned runs on six hits and three walks. At the plate, Arian Saenz was 2 for 3 with a run scored, while Caden Evers was 1 for 3 with an RBI. Winsten Nienhaus had a hit and a run scored.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Jon Petermann rounds second base during in a legion baseball game of the Upper Midwest Tournament against Waconia Friday at Mueller Park.

Sleepy Eye got things going strong in the first, plating four runs in the inning. Saenz singled and advanced to second with Cody Schultz getting hit by a pitch, then scored on a double by Evers. After that, Nienhaus cleared the bases and scored himself with a grounder to shortstop that ended up over the first baseman’s head, then in left field after two throwing errors.

Haala said that capitalizing on such errors and turning them into runs can make a big difference in tight ballgames.

“That’s huge,” he said. “We preach to our guys to make plays on defense, have our pitchers trust our defense. When we make plays, good things happen. Obviously from the offensive side of things, we want to put the ball in play, put the pressure on the defense. When things don’t necessarily go their way, they don’t make the plays, and we keep running. We have a fast team, so that’s ways we can sneak out extra runs.”

After the first inning, the Sleepy Eye offense went on a dry spell, only putting one runner on base in the next three innings. Waconia, meanwhile, was able to score one run in the third, fourth and fifth innings to make it a 4-3 game in the fifth.

Sleepy Eye brought in Marcus Martinez in the sixth to pitch, and he coaxed a grounder for a double play on baserunner’s interference for the second and third outs of the inning. In the top of the seventh, Sleepy Eye finally got on the board again, with Kaleb Weiss singling and Mathiowetz coming in to pinch run. Jon Petermann got a sacrifice bunt down, and Waconia neglected to cover third base on the play, allowing Mathiowetz to run past second. Once the throw was made to third, it was over the fielder’s head. Mathiowetz capitalized on the error by scoring Sleepy Eye’s fifth run of the game.

Martinez allowed two hits in the bottom of the seventh, putting runners on second and third, but he got a strikeout looking for the third out to give Sleepy Eye the win.

Mark Anderson earned the win from earlier in the day against Marshall, striking out 11 while allowing one run on three hits and five walks in 5 2/3 innings. At the plate, Saenz was 3 for 5 with two RBIs and a run scored, while Evers was 2 for 3 with three RBIs. Owen Weiss was 2 for 3 with four RBIs, and Talan Helget was 2 for 3. Schultz was 1 for 3 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Nienhaus was 1 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored.

In order to continue the success they’ve seen so far in the UMC, Haala believes Sleepy Eye will need to rely on its pitching.

“We have a pretty deep staff, but it takes a lot,” he said. “We found that out last year. We made a deep run last year, and we got a little thin towards the end with pitching. So it’s going to have to take guys stepping up when maybe they haven’t thrown as much all year. They’re going to have to take on bigger roles. That’s what it takes to go far in this tournament, continue to play good defense and put the ball into play, put the pressure on other teams.”