BROOKINGS — Micah Kauffman's game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning completed the comeback as the Watertown High School baseball team defeated Huron 3-2 in the first game of the region tournament on Monday.
Kauffman scored on a passed ball from the Huron pitcher to push the Arrows (9-9 overall) to the region championship game against Brookings. The title game will be played today (Tuesday) at Brookings. It was originally scheduled to follow Monday's first game but rain forced it to be rescheduled.
“Unfortunately it was a little wild,” said Watertown head coach Matt Paulson. “I thought Tyler (Fairchild) did a really nice job pitching. After the second inning he did a nice job settling in. For the most part I thought our hitters hit the ball pretty hard, just couldn't get them to fall early. We left some opportunities on the bases. Blake (Holden) did a nice job keeping them off the scoreboard.”
Huron scored once in each the first and second innings and were held scoreless the rest of the way. Fairchild allowed just three hits and struck out six batters in six innings of work. Holden fanned two and allowed one hit, picking the win in relief.
Ben DeVille drove in Watertown's first run of the game in the bottom of the seventh with a single. Alex Gauer scored in the sixth to tie things up. Kauffman doubled to lead off the bottom of the eight and advanced to third on a Brayden Shriver sacrifice bunt. He scored the winning run two batters later.
Kaffuman and John Day, who also doubled, finished with two hits apiece. Holden tripled.
The win sets up another opportunity for Watertown to advance to the state high school baseball tournament. Standing in their way is Brookings, who has won two straight Class A titles. Changing the day of the game complicates things for both teams for state, but doesn't change much for Watertown for today.
“Bailey Neuhauser will pitch for us, they'll go with their No. 1 and we've seen him a couple times,” said Paulson. “We hit him pretty hard here in Watertown and got to him a bit in the first outing. Seeing him before will definitely help us out. We're looking forward to the opportunity.”
Paulson said the Arrows will need to play error-free baseball and for Neuhauser to throw strikes to put them in a position to win.
“We have history with them and they've been here before, so if we can give ourselves a chance hopefully we can win it,” he said.
Watertown 3, Huron 2, 8 Innings
Huron 110 000 00 – 2 4 0
Watertown 000 011 01 – 3 8 1
Parker DeJean, Emerson Devries (8) and Matt Katz; Tyler Fairchild, Blake Holden (7) and Ben DeVille. W – Holden. L – DeVries. 2B: H, Parker DeJean; W, John Day, Micah Kauffman. 3B: W, Blake Holden.
