Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye Junior Legion’s Carson Uecker slides into home plate during a Southwest Sub-State Junior Legion baseball Tournament game with Slayton on Monday in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD — For the Sleepy Eye Junior Legion baseball team, resilience has been a defining feature of the season so far.

“It takes a lot of fortitude and toughness,” head coach Brandon Streich said. “And we’ve been a resilient group all year to be honest. We do a good job of not getting too high, not getting too low, staying level to the playing field. It shows. Today was awesome, and the playoff have been great.”

That resilience showed through as Sleepy Eye overcame deficits in two games Monday to advance to the DII Southwest Sub-State Junior Legion Baseball Championship game Tuesday.

Sleepy Eye collected a 3-2 win over Slayton before defeating Luverne 5-4 Monday at Riverside Park. Sleepy Eye was down 1-0 to Slayton and 3-0 to Luverne at points in the game.

“I think its just our energy, honestly,” Sleepy Eye’s Carson Uecker said. “If one person is down, the whole team is down. But everybody just picks each other up after one bad at-bat. Everyone gets up, then the energy’s good and we battle back.”

Uecker was the star in Sleepy Eye’s revenge game against Luverne, who had knocked them into the elimination bracket with a 5-3 win on Sunday. Not only did Uecker get the save on the mound, striking out two in two hitless innings, but he also hit a inside-the-park homer in the fifth inning, driving in two runs and giving Sleepy Eye the lead.

“I had an inside-the-park home run in school ball against [Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart],” Uecker said. “But that one [tonight] felt way better. That one just felt so good against these guys that ended our season last year and we lost to them yesterday. It just felt really good.”

Uecker was a combined 5 for 7 across the two games with three runs scored and three RBIs with a stolen base for good measure. On the mound, Uecker said confidence was key to holding Luverne off the bases across the final two innings.

“Bottom of the order, I was hunting fastballs,” he said. “In the top of the order, same thing. Changing up the speeds in the pitchers was a good thing. I’m not saying I’m fast, but decent fast, and just change up their timing.”

Uecker wasn’t the only Sleepy Eye player that contributed to winning on the day. In Game 1, Kayden Klein picked up a complete-game win on the mound, striking out three and allowing two runs on eight hits and no walks. At the plate, Cole Eckstein was 2 for 4 with a run scored while Uecker was 2 for 3 with a run scored. Klein was 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Landon Wendinger had a hit and an RBI.

Slayton struck first in the second with a double and a single bringing home a run. Sleepy Eye struck back in the fifth, with Klein and Uecker reaching on singles. Wendiger got another single to bring home Gavin Fischer, courtesy running for Klein, then Uecker scored on a sacrifice fly by Merrick Mathiowetz. Sleepy Eye tacked on an extra run in the fifth, with Eckstein singling and coming home on a hit by Klein.

Tyler Mathiowetz got the win in Game 2, striking out two and allowing four runs on six hits and four walks. At the plate, Uecker was 3 for 4 with three RBIs, while Tyler Mathiowetz had a hit and a run scored. Eckstein added a run scored and an RBI, while Klein was 2 for 4 with a run scored.

While the game on Sunday was similar to the one on Monday between Luverne and Sleepy Eye, Sleepy Eye was able to pull a different outcome in the second game.

“They got out to a quick lead yesterday, and we scored a few runs in the bottom of the seventh last night,” Streich said. “I think we used that momentum, and we got the confidence to say, ‘We can do this.’ We came in today, went down 3-0, but we maintained our confidence, and it showed. We came up big in big time spots.”

Mathiowetz allowed a single and an uncharacteristic walk in the first inning, setting up a double to score two runs for Luverne. Another double gave Luverne its 3-0 lead in the first, which it maintained through the second, only allowing one hit across the first two innings.

Eckstein broke the scoreless streak for Sleepy Eye, scoring after reaching on a fielder’s choice and a hit by Uecker to drive him home. Uecker scored on a throwing error on a hit by Mathiowetz to cut the lead to 3-2.

Luverne got a run back in the third, with another walk and a double making it a 4-2 game. Luverne and Sleepy Eye both had scoreless fourth innings to keep it a two-run game.

In the fifth inning, Tyler Mathiowetz laid down a bunt to lead off, making it to first in time to earn a hit, and an overthrow to first on the play got him all the way to third base. Eckstein capitalized with a sacrifice fly, bringing Tyler Mathiowetz home. After a single by Klein, Uecker was able to drive a pitch to deep right-center field for his lead-taking home run.

That was all the scoring that Sleepy Eye needed as Uecker held things down in the sixth and the seventh to earn the save and send Sleepy Eye to a rematch with Luverne.

The championship game will be played at 7 p.m. at Riverside Park Tuesday. The winner will advance to the DII Junior Legion State Tournament in St. Charles.