The Aberdeen Smittys split their final games of the season at Fossum Field Tuesday night.

The Smittys took the opener 15-9 against Sioux Falls East, but fell in second game 18-3 in 5 innings in the American Legion baseball doubleheader.

A complete game from the home squad helped propel the Smittys over the second-ranked team in the state.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about. Our pitching needs to do its job, and our bats,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly. “We just gotta score runs, and we did that almost to perfection in game one.”

The tone was set early with a 9-run first inning from the Smittys. Gonnelly said that execution allowed them to have a successful first at-bats.

“They just executed small ball. It all started with a Jaxon Ladner bunt in the first inning. We got runners on first and second, our three batter and nobody thinks our three batter should be bunting,” Gonnelly said. “He laid down the textbook bunt, right down third-base line. Guy safe at third, he’s safe at first and then boom, we’re rolling.”

The execution and completeness of game one got Gonnelly’s heart racing.

“I was looking at my Apple Watch and it was 144 beats per minute in some of those situations,” Gonnelly said. “I was like ‘Oh my gosh, it’s probably gonna ask me if I’m working out or something,’ and I’m just sitting in my comfy chair. It’s fun to be a part of that baseball game.”

Bennett Eisenbeisz started on the bump for the Smittys and threw three innings, allowing three earned runs. The lefty utilizes a plethora of pitches to keep batters off balance.

“I wanna throw batters off because I have a knuckleball and it’s just, I feel like it’s hard for them to see that and then see another same type of speed pitch, but there’s spin on it,” Eisenbeisz said. “I just wanna get in their head like ‘Hey, there’s this pitch that’s kind of weird that I gotta watch for,’ and then strike with another pitch that’s slightly faster.”

Not only did Eisenbeisz excel on the mound, but the Aberdeen defense backed him up getting batters out when the ball was put in play.

“Every time I’m up there, I’m like ‘All these guys behind me, they can make plays. They can help me.’ Even though I may not be the fastest thrower, I just can just watch every single play happen,” Eisenbeisz said. “I’m just like ‘Man, those guys are great.’”

As one of the youngest guys on the team, Eisenbeisz has a bright future, according to Gonnelly.

“He’s one of our favorites and he’s such a glue guy in the dugout. He’s always saying some funny stuff that you’re like ‘What?’ You just turn around and you’re like ‘Benny, what did you just say?’ and he’s got everybody laughing,” Gonnelly said. “As a guy who got pulled up, he’s younger on this team and he just does that on the mound. I’m so excited to see what he can do the next two years.”

Offensively, all 15 of the Smittys’ runs were earned coming off of nine hits. Jeheil Aviles and Lance Siefken led the way with 4 RBIs each.

However, the momentum did not carry into game two as Sioux Falls East bounced back, scoring one run in the first, 10 in the second, five in the third and two in the fourth.

“And then game two, it was the complete opposite. Our pitching was kind of here and there,” said Gonnelly. “And then we had runners in scoring position, but just couldn’t get them across the dish.”

Out of the Sioux Falls East 18 runs, 10 were earned as the Smittys committed four errors. A combination of errors, walks, and timely hits for the visitors fueled their win in the nightcap.

“We tell our pitchers, it’s your job as a pitcher to either get the guy out by throwing him strikes, or he’s gonna get himself out by hitting the ball,” Gonnelly said. “But if you let him hit the ball and your defense is making errors, it kind of makes your job harder, too. You can’t have five, seven errors, whatever it was, and we do have to throw more strikes as well.”

After a 10-run second inning, the Smittys got two runs back in the bottom half of the frame as Grant Beyer scored on an error, and a fielder’s choice led to another run.

The Smittys then scored their third run of the game in the bottom of the fourth when Eisenbeisz  hit a triple over the left fielder’s head scoring Ridley Waldo.

“We’re down 15, you know what, just swing for the fences. I get those first few strikes and I’m like ‘All right, now we’re just looking for contact,’” Eisenbeisz said. “I see that pitch, and I’m like ‘That’s a good pitch,’ and so I just swing as hard as I can.”

That triple from Eisenbeisz brought some energy to the dugout, despite facing a large deficit.

“It felt really good cause we were just kind of down and as soon as I hit that, I’m on third and I looked at the dugout and got everybody smiling,” Eisenbeisz said. “I’m like ‘Alright, let’s try and turn this thing around,’ so it just makes me feel good. It makes everybody feel good.”

However, the Smittys were unable to keep the momentum going and ended up falling in their final appearance at Fossum Field for the season. Aberdeen is now on the road for the remainder of the schedule.

“Even before we started the games today, taking our in and outs, I looked at the boys and said, ‘Hey, for some of you guys, this is your last games in Fossum. For some of you guys, this is your last game playing with these guys out at Fossum, so play hard for each other,’” Gonnelly said. “And that’s exactly what they did in game one right? It’s bittersweet because you have that awesome game, game one, and then a stinker of game two. But at the end of the day, we beat the number two (team).”

The Smittys will compete in the Gopher Classic in Minnesota this weekend, and follow it up with games at Spearfish and Sturgis next week.

Sioux Falls East 211 500 0 – 9 13 0

Aberdeen Smittys 910 032 x – 15 9 3

Kasen Christiansen, C Whiting (2), T Peterson (7) and Braydon Olson; Bennett Eisenbeisz, Jaxon Ladner (4), Jared Klootwyk (5) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Sioux Falls East, B. Olson, Brody Schafer, Dietrich Haan; Aberdeen Smittys, Lance Siefken. 3B – Sioux Falls East, Schafer, Caden Sporrer.

Sioux Falls East 1105 20 – 18 11 1

Aberdeen Smittys 020 10 – 3 3 4

Pete Samp and B. Olson; Karson Borge, Joran Foss (2), Lance Siefken (3) and Levi Hoffman, Joe Cogley. 2B – Sioux Falls East, Colin Lunders. 3B – Sioux Falls East, Caleb Bumann; Aberdeen Smittys, Bennett Eisenbeisz.