Struggles in the first inning let the Aberdeen Smittys down in their season-opening doubleheader against Watertown Wednesday night.

The Smittys fell twice to Watertown, 18-2 and 5-4 at Fossum Field with the visitors plating a combined 16 runs in the top of the first innings of those games. Watertown scored a dozen runs in the top half of the first in the opener and scored four times in its first at-bat of the second game.

“I’m not gonna make excuses. Excuses are like armpits, everyone has them, you know what I mean. But the mound wasn’t great for us,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly. “I don’t think we came out as hot as we were hoping. Just kind of expected to be competitive with a good team right away.”

In the second game, Watertown’s four runs came off of one hit, one error, and four walks on 39 pitches. In the following inning, Jaxon Ladner came on in relief, recording seven outs on 27 pitches. The Smittys held the rest of their pitchers under 30 pitches to be able to pitch today against Rapid City Post 320.

“Yep. All on pitch counts. They have to stay 30 and below in order to be eligible for (Thursday) and then 45 or lower to be eligible for Friday,” Gonnelly said. “With the small staff, we gotta keep guys under numbers and to be honest, they did a heck of a job. It’s not easy coming in and just being like hey, you have 30 pitches to get two innings and most of them came in and got their job done.”

Jared Klootwyk, Grant Beyer, and Bennett Eisenbeisz were the final three pitchers for the Smittys, all held under that 30-pitch limit, with no pitcher recording more than seven outs. Only having 30 pitches can be a struggle, especially without a proper warmup.

“They did a great job. They weren’t even able to throw bullpens just with how fast we had to rotate them,” Gonnelly said. “So, for them to come in and do their job, and … 15 pitches is like perfect for one inning.”

After Watertown held the Smittys to two scoreless innings in the nightcap, Aberdeen got on the scoreboard when Joe Cogley hit an RBI double bringing in Beyer in the third frame. The Smittys followed it up with another run in the fourth inning when an overthrow from the second baseman allowed Michael Dutenhoeffer to score from second.

Watertown extended its lead 5-2 in the fifth inning. With Ladner leading off in the bottom of the sixth, he focused on just getting on base to get back within striking distance.

“You just gotta get up there and pass the sticks along and find a way to be a base runner,” Ladner said. “It’s not like you gotta hit one over the fence, just pass the stick to the next guy and keep it moving.”

Ladner didn’t hit one over the fence, but he did hit one over the leftfielder’s head for a triple to spark a late comeback for the home team.

“I definitely knew it was hit hard, I was just hoping it was getting over his head,” Ladner said. “It was on a line, so just hustle out of the box, and try to get some extra-bases.”

Ladner blew through a stop sign from Gonnelly, who was telling him to hold up at second for a double, but an offline throw allowed Ladner to reach third safely.

“It all starts with ‘Lads.’ That timely triple he had. I was even telling him to hold up at second,” Gonnelly said. “That guy just had all the confidence in the world and so he was safe there.”

Ridley Waldo brought home Ladner with his own extra-base hit, a double over the leftfielder’s head to cut the deficit to 5-3.

“I’ve played against these guys for a long time, seen this pitcher a bunch of times, so that obviously helped me with confidence in the box, and then found a pitch I liked and finally drove it,” Waldo said. “The second I hit it, I kind of knew it was flush, so I kind of put my head down and started running.”

Waldo advanced to third when Levi Hoffman reached on an error, setting up runners on the corners with two outs. Hoffman left early from first and got in a rundown, allowing Waldo the opportunity to come in from third, cutting the deficit to one run.

“I’m standing on third. Coach asked me if I’m comfortable doing a delayed steal so we can get me home before our guy gets out and I said yeah,” Waldo said. “My teammate Levi executed it perfectly and I was able to take home plate. It was awesome.”

The Smittys weren’t able to finish off the comeback as Watertown retired the side in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Coach Gonnelly was still proud of his team for fighting back despite losing the first game by 16 runs, and falling behind by four in the second contest.

“Overall, proud of those guys battling. Just proud of the boys overall tonight, ‘cause losing that first game, with a 12 spot and then being able to come back and compete,” Gonnelly said. “That shows a lot of good character.”

The Smittys will hit the road to take on Rapid City Post 320 today and Friday, and be given the opportunity to score first as the visiting team.

“A big thing is gonna be us getting to hit first,” Waldo said. “I think it’s great to kind of jump on them right away, get some runs up.”

Ladner felt the same way.

“It’s nice to jump on them early. You saw what Watertown did to us in the first game,” Ladner said. “It just kills the momentum a little bit, so if we could do that for four games over there, that’ll be key.”

The Smittys will look to carry some momentum into the next four games on the road with the season just getting underway.

“Just building, just what we learned today and riding that this weekend,” Gonnelly said. “We just learn from the games, and practice for what we need to work on and ideally, come the middle of the season, come the end of the season, we have that nice, polished look at the end.”

Watertown (12)42 00 – 18 14 1

Aberdeen Smittys 110 00 – 2 4 4

Talan Jurgens and Johnathan Lake; Joe Cogley, Ridley Waldo (1), Lance Siefken (4) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Watertown, Kaden Rylance; Aberdeen Smittys, Jared Klootwyk.

Watertown 400 010 0 – 5 5 1

Aberdeen Smittys 001 102 0 – 4 8 3

Cain Everson, Nathan Briggs (7) and M. Dylla; Michael Dutenhoeffer, Jaxon Ladner (2), Jared Klootwyk (4), Grant Beyer (6), Bennett Eisenbeisz and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Aberdeen Smittys, Joe Cogley, Ridley Waldo. 3B – Aberdeen Smittys, Ladner.