{KXLG – Watertown, SD}\u00a0Seven costly errors and a quiet offense proved to be the undoing for Watertown Post 17, which dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Pierre Post 8, losing 4-3 and 4-1.<\/p>\n
Pierre 4, Watertown 3<\/p>\n
In the opener, Pierre capitalized heavily on defensive miscues, securing the win despite being held to just one hit by Watertown pitcher Jackson McClemans.<\/p>\n
Pierre struck first in the top of the third inning when Carter Schiefelbein hit a sacrifice fly. Two following Watertown errors in the frame allowed two more runs to cross.<\/p>\n
The Arrows answered in the bottom half of the inning. Cain Everson and Carter Buisker each delivered RBI singles, and a Pierre error allowed the tying run to score.<\/p>\n
Pierre regained the lead for good in the sixth inning on another Watertown defensive misplay. The Arrows threatened in the bottom of the seventh, putting the tying run on second after an Everson single and the potential winning run on first after Markus Pitkin was hit by a pitch. However, Pierre reliever Carter Schiefelbein secured the save by striking out Sam Olson to end the game.<\/p>\n
McClemans threw a complete game for the Arrows, allowing four runs on one hit while striking out four and walking three. Everson and Buisker finished with two hits and an RBI apiece.<\/p>\n
Carter Templeton earned the win for Pierre, giving up three runs on three hits across six innings. Will Danburg recorded Pierre\u2019s lone hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to Pierre,\u201d Neale said. \u201cThey came over here and they were just more prepared and wanted this one a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neale lamented the team\u2019s seven defensive miscues, noting the mental hurdles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just weren\u2019t there, and whether that\u2019s on us as coaches for not being able to prepare,\u201d Neale said. \u201cThe mental challenges that this team is going to have because we are good\u2014and being able to come through adversity and stay in it each pitch\u2026 it\u2019s just disappointing to come out with this result.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pierre 4, Watertown 1<\/p>\n
Pierre\u2019s offense came alive in the nightcap, racking up 10 hits to secure the sweep. Tripp Lindekugel, Will Eilers, and Will Danburg each collected two hits, with Lindekugel, Eilers, and Schiefelbein driving in one run apiece.<\/p>\n
Watertown\u2019s lone run came in the second inning via a Jaxon Falak sacrifice fly. The Arrows\u2019 offense struggled to capitalize on opportunities throughout the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had all kinds of opportunities,\u201d Neale said. \u201cBases loaded, one out, we didn\u2019t score. First and second, nobody out, didn\u2019t score\u2026 We just couldn\u2019t get base runners on. It kind of took us out of our game to an extent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everson led Watertown with another two-hit performance, while Olson, Jonathan Lake, and McClemans each added a hit. Kooper Heiser took the loss, allowing four runs on eight hits. Kasen Jensen pitched two innings of scoreless relief.<\/p>\n
Danburg earned the win on the mound for Pierre, giving up one run on four hits over five innings. Ryker Edson pitched the final two frames to earn the save.<\/p>\n
Postseason Implications<\/p>\n
The sweep puts the Arrows (31-20, 16-12) in a tough spot regarding postseason seeding with just six games remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this does to us point-wise is going to put our backs up against the wall, unfortunately,\u201d Watertown coach Ryan Neale said. \u201cBasically, it\u2019s going to force ourselves to win out to be able to have a chance for us to be at home for super regionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up Next<\/p>\n
No. 8 Watertown will look to rebound tonight when they travel to face No. 10 Renner for a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"{KXLG – Watertown, SD}\u00a0Seven costly errors and a quiet offense proved to be the undoing for Watertown Post…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[21908,5,2323,2314,2317,2313,16247,2426,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,92529,2415,185,2419,90098,34118,90099,1039],"class_list":["post-745591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-american-legion","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-error","tag-kxlg","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-pierre-post-8","tag-south-dakota","tag-sports","tag-watertown","tag-watertown-baseball-association","tag-watertown-post-17","tag-wba","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}