BROOKINGS – It just wasn’t meant to be for the Bobcat baseball team in 2017.

Despite matching Watertown hit-for-hit, the ‘Cats couldn’t plate a run in Wednesday’s 3-0 Region 1A championship-game loss to the Arrows at Bob Shelden Field.

“For having a few days off, I thought our preparation was good, but this game was a microcosm of the last doubleheader we played against Pierre,” said Bobcat head coach Ryan Bauer. “We made some mistakes; in that doubleheader we stranded 20 runners and today we stranded 11 – I’m not taking anything away from Watertown – they made a lot of nice plays defensively and they had a plan at the plate; they had a plan on the mound – seems like we were a little anxious at the plate and it just didn’t work out for us.

“We had a great pitching performance; we had a great plan going in for the mound – I think Chris (Lerdal) did a great job – ground-ball outs and a couple of seeing-eye bloop hits; (Jacob) Devine came in, did a great job.

“It’s just unfortunate we didn’t cut innings a little bit shorter, but again, when you don’t come through with those big hits, it doesn’t matter who you are playing or what the circumstances are, it’s going to be a tough road.”

The Arrows broke a scoreless tie with a pair of runs in the top of the third inning.

With one out, Tom Vener and John Day each hit a ground ball through the infield before Alex Gauer dribbled one past Lerdal on the mound in front of Drew Cole at second base that he legged out to load the bases.

Micah Kauffman drove a shot into the left-center gap that leftfielder Jacob Schoon ran down and stretched out for the circus catch, but Vener and Day both tagged up as Vener scored and Day reached third to put runners on the corner. On the next pitch, Gauer tried to give himself up on a late steal to second to give Day a chance to score, but Nikalson’s throw to second sailed – allowing Gauer to move up and Day to cross the plate to make it 2-0 before the ‘Cats got out of the inning.

Watertown tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh as Ben DeVille singled to right. Colton McClemans’ ground ball back to Devine on the mound was fielded cleanly, but the throw to second ended up in right field, allowing courtesy runner Tyler Fairchild to reach second and McClemans to get to first.

Tom Vener laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up a base before Day’s ground-ball out up the middle allowed Fairchild to score to make it 3-0.

Vener served up three ground-ball outs in the bottom of the seventh to clinch the win for the Arrows.

Niklason, Lerdal, Kreutner, Devine, Schoon and Brandin Heesch each had a single for the Bobcats as the home team did leave 11 runners on base as the two-time defending state champs closed 2017 with a 19-10 mark.

Bailey Neuhauser earned the win on the mound for the Arrows as he gave up five hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts over five innings. Tom Vener picked up the save as he allowed one hit and struck out one in the final two frames.

Lerdal suffered the loss as he gave up two runs – one earned – on five hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings of work with six strikeouts. Devine allowed an unearned run on one hit and a pair of walks with two strikeouts. Ryan Miley faced the final batter and threw five pitches to get the strikeout.

Watertown takes on Brandon Valley in Saturday’s second semifinal game at Sioux Falls Stadium. Roosevelt and Pierre square off at noon with the Arrows-Lynx matchup to follow. The championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m.

WATERTOWN 3, BROOKINGS 0

Watertown                  002 000 1 – 3 6 0

Brookings                   000 000 0 – 0 6 2

Bailey Neuhauser, Tom Vener (6) and Ben DeVille; Chris Lerdal, Jacob Devine (6), Ryan Miley (7) and Cody Niklason. W – Neuhauser. L – Lerdal. Sv – Vener. 2B: W, Alex Gauer.