Photo by Samantha Davis. Lakeview catcher Teagan Neuman successfully tags out a Renville County West runner attempting to steal home for a double play in the second inning with a throw from Braylon Breyfogle at shortstop. The Lakers fell to the Jaguars 7-3 in the regular season finale Wednesday night in Cottonwood.

COTTONWOOD — With both teams looking to end the regular season on a high note with their first win, the Lakeview baseball team fell just short to Renville County West 7-3 in a Camden Conference game Wednesday evening. The game was postponed from Tuesday due to weather.

“We worked hard to get this game in for that reason, to hopefully play a solid game. Both teams here have struggled throughout the year, so it was good to get this one in,” Lakeview head coach Curt Schake said. “Obviously it would be nice to be the one on top, but we did a lot of good things in this game.”

Lakeview overall had solid defense, but struggled until late in the game to get offense going and past the Jaguars’ defense. RCW took a 7-0 lead behind a four-run fourth inning before the Lakers scored three runs in response, but the final three innings remained scoreless on both ends.

Five different Lakers took to the mound tonight — Kyler Post, Dylan Caron, Braylon Breyfogle, Teagan Neuman and Logan Herrick.

Caron and Neuman each pitched the most with two innings each.

“The idea today was to get everybody a little bit of work on the mound [before playoffs],” Schake said. “That’s why you saw an inning or two of [almost] each of the players.”

RCW brought a run in each of the first three innings to take an early 3-0 lead, yet the Lakers had a pair of double plays to halt any more Jaguars’ momentum from taking place.

RCW scored the day’s first run with one out in the opening inning after an infield overthrow error to first base allowed a runner from second base to take home. Directly after, Breyfogle at shortstop caught a line drive and tagged out an RCW runner leading off second base for the double play.

Breyfogle again started Lakeview’s next double play in the second inning when RCW had bases loaded with one out.

Off catching a fly ball into short left field, Breyfogle threw down to Neuman, Lakeview’s catcher, who successfully tagged a runner out attempting to run home off the catch.

“[That was] just the guys knowing where they were going with the ball when the ball comes to them,” Schake said. “Smart baseball plays. Fortunate, and it takes some thought process in that too, to make that happen.”

Caron got offense going in the bottom of the second inning with a hard line drive triple to center field. Yet, RCW’s defense didn’t allow another runner on base while completing the three outs to prevent Lakeview from getting on the board.

RCW ventured off on its four-run fourth inning to take a 7-0 lead off four hits, including two doubles to left center field.

The Lakers got their bats going in response, with a trio of runs to cut into a 7-3 deficit. But, it wasn’t enough as the two teams held one another off defensively the remainder of the game.

Herrick hit a single hard ground ball to short right field, and made his way around the bases after stealing second and running home off an Easton Schmidt single RBI, who also was safe at first off an RCW overthrow error.

Brooks Smith was hit by a pitch to take first, moving Schmidt to second base. The duo both advanced a base off a passed ball.

Smith and Schmidt accounted for the other two runs, both scoring on the same play off a wild pitch before the Jaguars could complete the final out.

Lakeview’s comeback attempt fell short as the next three innings remained scoreless, bringing the regular season to an end.

“Our biggest opponent is ourselves. We beat ourselves, usually by not showing up defensively,” Schake said. “Today, I felt we did show up defensively. So, you don’t feel bad about a game that you did a lot of the good things that you need to do.”

Lakeview (0-14) has received the No. 7 seed in the South division of the Section 3A Tournament, and will face No. 2 Yellow Medicine East (9-5) in Granite Falls on Saturday at 11 a.m. in the first round. The winner will advance to the subsection quarterfinals, to be played at 3:30 p.m. on the same field.

“Thinking back the first time we played them [on April 22], it was an 11-6 game, and we didn’t ever feel like it was a game we didn’t have a chance at winning,” Schake said. “We feel like we have a chance at winning every ball game that we go into.”