Two weekends ago, the Sleepy Eye Junior Legion won the Junior Upper Midwest Classic for the first time after sharing the crown in 2016 with Mankato West after Mother Nature rained out the title game.

Last weekend, the Sleepy Eye Legion Post 7, coached by Caden Evers and Winsten Nienhaus, matched that by capturing the Upper Midwest Classic title. Post 7 shared the title in 1998 with Rochester after rained cancelled the title game. In 2023, Sleepy Eye finished second in the UMC to Plover, Wisconsin.

The only other program to win both titles in the same year came in 1997 and 2001 when the New Ulm Junior Legion and the Legion team grabbed the titles.

Calling the last two weekends a success for the Sleepy Eye Legion baseball program may be an understatement.

Currently the Junior Legion team is 11-0 and the Legion team is 9-2.

“We went 6-0 in each tournament,” Brandon Streich, coach of the Junior Legion and an assistant coach with the Legion team, said. “And to take home the title in both tournaments is pretty special.”

Streich said that he thought that this season could be a good one for both teams after last year.

“We ended the season on a high note after last year with the Junior team in the state tournament and the Legion lost in the sub-state championship,” he said. “But with the talent that we had [coming back], we kind of knew going into the season with higher expectations than normal.”

And both teams are relatively young.

“Both are very young,” Streich said. “We will have five players on the Junior team that move on next year and our Legion team will lose just three [to age]. So we will have the majority of our players eligible to come back.”

Streich said that the players on both teams love the game of baseball.

“And they play the game the right way — they play hard and play for each other,” he said. “And it does not matter who is top dog each game — they do not care who gets the glory — they all work together and that is the best part. And we are fundamentally sound and that goes to their coaches when they were younger and at the two high schools and I cannot say enough good about them.”

While Sleepy Eye is a DII program and will play in the DII tournaments come playoff time, they do play a majority of DI teams in the regular season.

“That helps us greatly,” Streich said. “We are seeing stiffer competition and even the Junior teams. I think that out of the 11 games, we have only faced a team with a losing record three times and our opponents are 70-54. But that DI competition is something that is very hard to replicate and I think that our kids kind of thrive off of that competition.”

Streich said that the teams have set goals to win state titles.

“Getting to the state last year gave the kids hunger for that,” he said.

Streich said that even though it is DII baseball in the playoffs, you still need to play your best baseball no matter what division it is.

“You do not want to overlook any opponent ever and there are still some quality teams in DII,” he said. “So you do the little things right and the rest will take care of itself.”

Streich feels that both the Junior Legion and Legion can win DII state championships this season.

“We are capable of that, but it is very difficult to d,” he said. “And if we did that, it would be a pretty incredible accomplishment and that would be very humbling. But it would make everyone see how fortunate we are to have a good foundation.”