The Aberdeen Smittys are looking for a little role reversal this season.
A year ago, the Smittys earned home-field advantage for the Class A baseball regional playoffs only to come up short. This time Aberdeen will be on the road in the postseason, but carries a lot of momentum into a rematch with Brandon Valley, having won its last five games.
“We’re a dangerous team. It comes down to what team is hot. It really does,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly. “Last year it was a different story, we were one of the top teams in the state, but toward the end of the year just weren’t playing our best baseball. This year we’re not the best team in the state, but we’re playing our best baseball right now.”
Aberdeen and Brandon Valley faced each other just once this season, that coming in a tourney where BV pulled out a narrow 3-1 victory.
“They’re a solid team. They won the state championship for high school baseball,” Gonnelly said. “They’re coached pretty well. They’re going to play a little bit of small ball and do things the right way.”
The best of three series gets underway today and concludes on Thursday. Gonnelly expects it to be a tight series.
“As long as we stay true to our game plan and stay true to ourselves, I think we’re going to be just fine,” Gonnelly. “They’re going to be some pretty competitive games.”
The Smittys got off to a rough start this season and went through a stretch where they lost a dozen games in a row. Gonnelly said adjustments have been made along the way, things like having the right approach at the plate to even bat selection with some players using three or four different bats throughout the season.
“As of late it looks like they picked the right bats,” Gonnelly said.
Aberdeen is coming off a stretch where they scored 62 runs in their past five games.
Everybody on the team has had an attempt at pitching as well. In short, the Smittys have been trying to figure out the puzzle and the pieces seem to be fitting in place at the right time.
“We have to be scrappy. We have to be willing to play different positions, bat in a different order, and just understand that it’s that big puzzle that were looking at,” Gonnelly said. “We’re not looking at really individual pieces when it comes to game time. We’re looking at that big picture. We’re getting there.”
And during the tough times and adversity, the players never gave up. They have continued to grind. It’s fits in well with a philosophy that Gonnelly picked up from a Super Bowl champion.
“One of my favorite quotes comes from Jalen Hurts, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. He said, ‘We didn’t walk through that fire just to smell the smoke.’ There’s going to be some obstacles. There’s going to be some times when we’re down,” Gonnelly said. “There’s going to be some things that don’t go our way, but we’re just walking through the fire at that point. As soon as we come through the other side, you’re going to be tougher for it, you’re going to be better for it. That’s kind of what we’re seeing right now.”
The past can’t be erased and the Smittys will still wear the underdog label heading into the postseason, but Gonnelly is excited about where the team is at and what it can accomplish.
“We’re the underdog, but we have the mo jo going,” Gonnelly said. “We have a great group of guys and we’re excited for it.”
And regardless of the past, the fact remains that it’s the first team to win two games that will advance to the state tournament.
“I think they’re kind of realizing, that hey we gotta go out there,” Gonnelly said, “we just gotta play with our hair on fire.”
That’s somewhat fitting for a team that didn’t walk through a fire just to smell the smoke.
