Sleepy Eye tops NU Gold, earns state trip

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

MANKATO -- Sleepy Eye's Tyler Jensen has been close to a state tournament before, having played on the Sleepy Eye Public team that lost to Sleepy Eye St. Mary's in the Section 2A championship game during the high school baseball season.

So, as the popular saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Jensen, along with a solid nucleus of past and present St. Mary's players, reached the state tournament for the first time since 1996 as Sleepy Eye defeated New Ulm Gold 7-5 Sunday at Wolverton Field.

"It feels great," Jensen said. "Going through the high school season, we knew one of those two teams was going [to state], and it was finally nice to be on a team with these guys and we know how to get there."

Jensen reached base all five times he was up and scored two runs. He said that losing the first game was something his team wanted to avoid at all costs.

"If we lose that first one, it's a huge momentum swing," Jensen said. "We just wanted to go out there and give it our best, and we won."

Matt Mathiowetz was the winning pitcher, going 8 1/3 innings before Mark Hillesheim came in for the save. Mathiowetz, who got a pregame pep talk from his father, struck out nine and walked three. He allowed seven hits.

"My dad is always there before the game and he tells me to stay focused and throw strikes," Mathiowetz said. "I try to do it most games, but sometimes it doesn't always work out."

A day after scoring 27 runs in two games, it looked as if Gold was going to continue the trend of scoring early and often. Tyler Morgan smashed a Mathiowetz offering over the wall in right center to give Gold a 2-0 lead.

But the home run may have been a blessing in disguise as Mathiowetz settled down after that point.

"I wasn't concerned -- I made a bad pitch to a good hitter, and he hit it out of the ball park," Mathiowetz said. "After that, I knew I had to keep the ball down with the wind blowing out, and I did a better job after that. Sometimes you go out there and you throw too many strikes, and they can just sit on them. I just started to mix the ball up a little bit."

Sleepy Eye pieced together a few runs and eventually took its first lead in the third inning. Mathiowetz had an RBI single that scored Chris Reinarts. Later, Jake Bohnen's sacrifice scored Jensen to put Sleepy Eye up 3-2.

"I think both teams are like that," New Ulm coach Dave Kunz said. "We got up, and they came back and got ahead. We made a few mistakes both offensively and defensively, but that's what it comes down to at this point."

Bohnen, who was a part of the St. Mary's state championship team, finished with three RBIs. After the game, he was excited to go after another title run.

"It's great to be back here and have this chance again," Bohnen said. "I mean, this is what you shoot for all year, and to get here is just awesome."

Sleepy Eye scord twice more in the fourth inning to go up 5-2. Andy Cook and Matt Mathiowetz had RBI singles, but for the most part, Kunz thought his pitching staff did a good job handling the heart of the Sleepy Eye order.

"I think we did a fairly did good job in the middle of their order," Kunz said. "For the most part, we handled some of their better hitters and we did some things we wanted to do. Again, we just fell short in a couple of the areas."

Sleepy Eye scored twice more in the seventh before New Ulm mounted a comeback. Brad Kraus and Landon Rewitzer both scored in the eight inning to bring their team to a 7-4 deficit.

New Ulm also got a scare in that inning as Morgan was hit in the face by a pitch, causing a bloody nose and five minute stoppage of play. However, Morgan stayed in the game after the incident.

"It was inside a little bit, and I talked to him -- he kinda thought it was going to be a curve ball, so the fastball got up on him," Mathiowetz said.

New Ulm scored one more run in the top of the ninth after Kraus hit a double that scored Joey Geistfeld.

New Ulm ends its season at 16-17. Nick Breu took the loss for New Ulm. He went 3 1/3 innings, allowing five runs.