Finishing the game with 13 strikeouts and with his offense getting the lead back for him just moments later, Sleepy Eye earned a 6-1 win Saturday at Redbird Field to qualify for the Division II American Legion State Baseball Tournament for the second consecutive year.

If there are any reminders needed, Sleepy Eye won that state tournament a year ago and will be looking for a repeat performance this year.

“It’s just pure joy that we get to go back again,” Anderson said. “Now we just kind of got to focus on the next part. This is nice but the ultimate goal is to defend our state championship from last year, so we’re just trying to refocus and get back it.”

Sleepy Eye will next play at 4 p.m. Friday in Bird Island in the first round of the state tourney.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye Legion Post 7’s Cody Schultz tags out Windom’s Hayden Tietz at third in the third inning of Saturday’s Southwest Sub-State American Legion Baseball Tournament Championship game at Redbird Field in Luverne.

Anderson allowed four hits and two walks for one earned run Saturday in a complete-game effort.

Charles Erickson got the start for Windom and went 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and six walks for five earned runs while striking out four.

After Windom got a leadoff single from Quintin Tietz on an 0-2 count, Adam Perrizo brought Tietz home on an RBI double that got just out of the range of a diving Talan Helget in right-center field. Perrizo overran second, however, and Sleepy Eye was able to tag him out and minimize the damage. Anderson then got a strikeout before issuing a walk and ending the inning with another strikeout.

“First inning I wasn’t executing on the 0-2 pitches,” Anderson said. “I was getting ahead of them just fine, but when I got to 0-2, I was just giving them too many good pitches. They did what they should with it and got some base hits, scored a run, which props to them.”

Not many teams have been able to take an early lead off Sleepy Eye this summer due to the host of talented pitchers Post 7 provides, but the early lead didn’t shake the team’s confidence.

Cody Schultz was just one hitter that had an answer for his team in the bottom of the first as a single off his bat put Sleepy Eye in front 2-1.

“That run didn’t really mean much because we knew we could come back and get another run and get more than one run, too,” Schultz said.

Jon Petermann opened the bottom half of that first inning with a ground-ball single up the middle but was picked off of first for the first out. Helget then walked and stole second before Arian Saenz singled him to third.

A wild pitch then scored Helget before Schultz sent a fastball into right field to take the lead.

“I’m getting up there and I’m ready to hit the ball,” Schultz said. “They’ve been throwing fastballs and if I see a fastball in the zone, I’m going to hit that ball.”

Schultz finished the game going 2 for 3 with that RBI and a walk to lead Sleepy Eye, while Brandon Schmitz was 2 for 3 with a walk.

After Saenz and Schultz each walked to start the bottom of the third, a wild pitch moved both players up and a sac fly off the bat of Caden Evers made it 3-1. A two-out walk to Owen Weiss was followed with another wild pitch that scored Schultz for a 4-1 Sleepy Eye lead after three.

Sleepy Eye added to its lead in the fifth after a bunt single by Winsten Nienhaus turned into a throwing error by the catcher that scored Schultz and saw Nienhaus end up on third. Weiss drew a walk and was pinch ran for by Kessler Severson, who coaxed a rundown on a delayed double-steal attempt that let Nienhaus take home for a 6-1 Post 7 lead.

Anderson struck out the first two batters he saw in the bottom of the seventh before Erickson singled to delay Sleepy Eye’s celebration. But Anderson was able to secure his 13th strikeout of the game to send Sleepy Eye back to state.

“This is probably our last few games playing together,” Anderson said. “These guys aren’t even teammates anymore, we’re basically brothers at this point, we’ve done so much together. This is kind of our last hurrah before we’ve all got to go off to college, so it means everything if we can get this state championship done.”

Sleepy Eye can now start prepping for a return to the state tournament and will be gunning for a repeat of last year.

“All of us are excited, all of us,” Schultz said. “We’re ready to win it all, do it again for the town.”