Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Cole Eckstein takes home base during the DII Junior Legion Southwest Sub-Sub State C-Pod Baseball Championship Monday at Sleepy Eye Ballpark.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye Junior Legion took advantage of nine walks to score 13 runs and defeat St. James 13-3 in six innings to win the DII Junior Legion Southwest Sub-Sub State C-Pod Baseball Championship Monday at Sleepy Eye Ballpark.

“Ideally we like to preach if teams are going to give us free bases, we’ve got to take every opportunity we can to take advantage of that,” Sleepy Eye head coach Brandon Streich said. “Fortunately tonight we put the ball in play when we needed to, and we took advantage of it.”

Sleepy Eye saw contributions from all over the lineup in the game, with seven players recording at least one hit and 10 different players scoring a run. Kayden Klein lead the team on offense, going 2 for 4 with three RBIs and a run scored, while Gavin Strong was 2 for 5 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run scored. Eric Lozano and Jack Windschitl each had a double and two RBIs, while Landon Wendinger had two RBIs.

Tyler Mathiowetz picked up the win on the mound, striking out six while allowing three unearned runs on two hits and one walk.

“Tyler does a good job throwing strikes, he’s a strike-thrower,” Streich said. “He’s a good guy to have on the mound. We didn’t let things snowball defensively, but he’s a guy that picks up his teammates, and it’s always really comforting to have that on the mound.”

St. James got on the board first with a single run, but Sleepy Eye came storming back with a five-run second inning. A walk put Kessler Severson on first, then a single by Kam Kosak and an error got runners on second and third. Another throwing error put into play by Cole Eckstein loaded the bases, then Klein connected with a pitch that scored Kosak. Carson Uecker collected a hit to drive in Eckstein, then Klein was brought home on a double by Strong. Wendinger earned an RBI on a groundout to wrap up the scoring.

Sleepy Eye continued in the third, putting three more runs on the board on a two-run single by Klein and Wendinger drawing a walk with bases loaded. After a scoreless fourth, St. James got a pair of runs back in the fifth, one on a throwing error and another on a sacrifice fly.

With a 8-3 lead, Sleepy Eye had a big sixth inning to push to lead to double digits and put the 10-run rule into effect. Windschitl, Lozano and Strong all had doubles in the inning, with Windschitl and Lozano driving in two runs and Strong putting one across the plate. With Windschitl’s double, the score reached 13-3, ending the game.

Sleepy Eye now advances to the DII Junior Legion Southwest Sub-State Tournament in Springfield on Sunday to continue its season.

“Right now, you look at our Sub-State, and we’re going to have some good competition,” Streich said. “We’ve been playing some solid competition all year long, and we’ve answered every challenge that we’ve had. I’m proud of the guys right now, and it’s going to be a dog fight, but I think we can do pretty well if we can throw strikes and play clean defense and get timely hitting.”

Sleepy Eye opens the tourney with a game against the host team Springfield at 1 p.m. Sunday.