At the expense of crosstown rivals and the No. 6-seeded Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights, the Indians were able to pick things up by capitalizing on two errors, a walk and two singles to score five runs and take a permanent lead, winning 9-5 at Sleepy Eye Ballpark.

The Indians (13-9) now take on No. 1-seeded New Ulm Cathedral at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mankato East High School, the winner moving on to this coming Thursday’s section finals.

The Knights (12-11), meanwhile, fall to elimination bracket play and take on No. 8-seeded Mankato Loyola at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in a win-or-go-home game at Mankato East High School.

Kayden Klein went all seven innings to earn the win on the mound, allowing eight hits and two walks for five runs while striking out five.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye’s Gaving Strong smiles as he’s greeted by teammate Cody Schultz (7) on his way to the dugout after scoring a run during a Section 2A baseball playoff game against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Thursday at Sleepy Eye Ballpark.

Tyler Mathiowetz took the loss for the Knights on the mound in five innings, allowing 10 hits and two walks for seven runs, five earned, while striking out two.

Kessler Severson pitched an inning in relief for the Knights, allowing two hits and two walks for two earned runs while striking out one, while Eli Christensen pitched a scoreless seventh without a hit or walk allowed.

“We knew Tyler was going to be in the zone and he’s a good pitcher, so we just kind of got the mindset of, ‘We’ve got to put balls in play,'” Sleepy Eye head coach Aaron Nesvold said. “We knew it was going to kind of be one of those games with good pitchers, Kayden and Tyler, that the defense is going to have to make plays. …

“We had that one inning where we had that one error, gave them an extra run. We had two guys thrown out at the plate, so they made some pretty nice plays, too. So, it was a good, hard-fought game and hopefully we get to see them again because, obviously, it would be nice to have a Sleepy Eye section title game.”

In Sleepy Eye’s big sixth inning, Cole Eckstein reached on a leadoff error before Jaxon Saenz reached on a bunt fielder’s choice that saw both he and Eckstein reach base safely. Another bunt by Karter Haala led to a throwing error from the mound to score Eckstein and tie the game at 5-all.

Jacob Fulmer then delivered the go-ahead hit on a ground-ball single into right to score Saenz and take a 6-5 lead.

Kayden Klein was hit by a pitch to fill the bases for Cody Schultz, who drew a walk to bring in another run and make it 7-5. Still without an out in the inning, Carson Uecker made things worse for the Knights with a two-run single into center field for the 9-5 lead.

Thursday was also a unique anniversary for the two schools as it was 50 years ago to the day that both teams played each other for the first time. That game on May 29, 1975, saw Dominic Sellner hit a grand slam to help lead the Knights to a 7-4 win.

While Thursday’s game didn’t see any grand slams, it did see plenty of hits from both teams as they jostled for the lead. The Indians ended up with 11 hits to the Knights’ eight hits.

Uecker led the hit parade with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, which saw a double and three RBIs. Fulmer was 2 for 4 with two RBIs also for Sleepy Eye.

The Knights were led by Talan Helget, who was 2 for 4 with two RBIs, while Landy Folkens was 2 for 4.

Sleepy Eye had the early momentum when a two-out Uecker double into right scored Schultz, who singled just before Uecker, in the first inning.

The Indians had more two-out success in the second. After Gavin Strong singled to lead off, a sac bunt by Eckstein moved him to second before a lineout had two outs in the inning. A Haala walk and a Fulmer single followed to score Strong before a single by Klein scored Haala and made it a 3-0 game.

The Knights quickly took the lead back in the bottom of the second, getting a leadoff single by Kameron Kosak and a Folkens single to start things. An infield fly followed and a Jack Windschitl single loaded the bases. After a strikeout, a single by Helget scored two runs and a throwing error to third brought in another run to tie the game. Merrick Mathiowetz then singled in Helget for a 4-3 Knights lead.

Merrick Mathiowetz had a sac fly in the fourth to score Windschitl and give his team another run before Sleepy Eye got the run back in the fifth on a sac fly from Landon Wendinger that scored Uecker, who singled with one out and took second and third on passed balls.

“Biggest thing today is Tyler got behind hitters a little bit, so they were able to sit back and wait for good pitches to put it in play, which they did,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “In their sixth inning when they got the five [runs], we started the inning with an error, didn’t execute some other stuff, we had another error in the same inning. Two errors came in the same inning and that kind of blew up in our face a little bit.

“But credit Sleepy Eye. They put the ball in play, they had good at-bats, we did the same. We hit some hard balls right at them there, especially towards the last couple innings, but that’s the game of baseball. You’ve got to execute and make the plays for your pitcher and pitchers.”

Both teams were playing in a game many didn’t have them penciled in for before this past Tuesday night. However, Sleepy Eye and St. Mary’s got the job done in the last round against higher-seeded teams on the road to get to Thursday’s game.

The Knights knocked off No. 3-seeded Cleveland, while the Indians took down the defending Class A state champs and No. 2-seeded Springfield Tigers in eight innings.

“We’ve really been preaching to the kids the last couple weeks that it’s not the best team that wins, it’s the team that plays the best,” Nesvold said. “We’ve really pushed that onto the kids that, ‘Hey, you just have to be better than the other team,’ and so far we’ve done that. And, again, not to take anything away from any of the opponents that we’ve had, but if you play better than the other teams, you’ve got a good chance to win.”