The Aberdeen Smittys were forced to play uphill baseball Monday at Fossum Field and never made it up the hill.

Aberdeen led only briefly in falling to Brookings 15-8 and 13-2 in high school baseball action.

“I don’t think we brought the energy to the field and walked too many guys,” said Aberdeen’s Karson Borge, “a lot of free bases, and our bats didn’t show up, either.”

Brookings scored five times in the opening inning of the first game to set the tone for the twinbill, which lasted nearly six hours. A big factor in both games was Aberdeen’s difficulty in throwing strikes as the Smittys issued two dozen walks on the day.

“I think the biggest hurdle that we have to overcome now is just pitching. We had close to 30 walks today. When you have numbers like that, it’s tough to win ball games,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly. “Just getting our pitchers more dialed in, just getting them a little bit more experience, that’s what we saw today, seeing a lot of pitchers go, just getting them some experience. Because I’d rather them pitch in a game like this than a month and a half from now, we’re in the state tournament and it’s your first time pitching.”

Those free passes not only gave Brookings a variety of baserunners, but the visitors took advantage of those opportunities on the way to scoring 28 runs.

“They got on us early and it almost seemed like we rolled over tonight,” said Aberdeen’s Jaxon Ladner, “and that’s a lesson to be learned and it’s not going to happen again. … These boys are a higher-caliber team and they’re going to take advantage of those walks.”

Aberdeen rallied in the first game to tie the score at 7-7 in the fourth inning before Brookings pulled away, outscoring the Smittys 8-1 the rest of the contest. While Aberdeen scored the first run in the second game, Brookings responded with seven unanswered runs and was never challenged the rest of the way.

While Brookings was busy scoring runs, it prevented Aberdeen from utilizing one of its strengths, aggressiveness and speed on the base paths.

“It does kind of change your game plan a little bit. You can’t really steal as much as you’d like to,” Gonnelly said, “and there’s a scenario, should I bunt here or should I not have him bunt here, because if he doesn’t get it down or whatever may happen, it’s kind of a free out anyhow and then are we going to be able to make him go from second to home.”

As a result, Brookings finished with 16 stolen bases in the two games combined, while Aberdeen managed just two.

“When you’ve got to cap five runs … the out is more valuable than a stolen base,” Ladner said. “At the end of the day you’ve got to really think about what’s going on. You need a rally and that stolen base isn’t going to make or break the game.”

With so many walks in the doubleheader it took a bit of a toll on the Smittys fielders, who went periods of time without much activity.

“I will say it definitely got a little boring out there,” Borge said, “but as a team we need to bring the energy.”

Gonnelly said the walks given up on defense, ended up impacting the Aberdeen offense as well, because the defense was out on the field for long periods of time.

“It’s hard to keep the momentum through the batting order,” Gonnelly said. “It’s just one of those things that we all have to learn from and all get better at. They’re a great group, they have a good culture going, so I have nothing but optimism for us this weekend.”

Borge, who had two hits and drove in a pair of runs in the first game and also tripled in the second contest, said the team will take notes from those setbacks.

“I think we can definitely learn from it,” Borge said. “We need to bring the energy in the future, and just throw more strikes and bring the bats.”

Jehiel Aviles scored a pair of runs in the opener and added two hits (including a triple) and scored two more runs in the nightcap. Michael Dutenhoffer also tripled in the second game.

Aberdeen, 2-3 on the season, faces Rapid City Stevens and Tea Area in Tea for four games this weekend.

“Sometimes it’s good to get your butt kicked a little bit just to kind of see what you’re made of,” Gonnelly said, “and see some different guys go out in different positions, and we’ll see how we bounce back from two tough losses.”

Ladner said the players have gained valuable experience so far this young season and should now be ready for go for the rest of the campaign.

“We’re ready to go now. There’s no more excuses,” Ladner said. “We’re going to get on, limit the walks, and we’re going to go make a statement for ourselves.”

Brookings 502 041 3 – 15 11 2

Aberdeen Smittys 120 400 1 – 8 4 6

Tyson Antonen, Cooper Schneider (4), Ryan Lockrem (6), Jase Bauer (7) and Max Jensen; Brayden Bowman, Joe Cogley (4), Drake Soderlund (7). 2B – Brookings, Jay Harris 2; Aberdeen Smittys, Grant Beyer.

Brookings 043 030 3 – 13 8 2

Aberdeen Smittys 101 000 0 – 2 6 0

Nolan Krogman, Ryan Lockrem (6) and Max Jensen, Kysin Reuer; Joran Foss, Branson Peterson (2), Jackson Post (3), Jared Klootwyk (3), Simon Voorhees (6), Ridley Waldo (7) and Levi Hoffman.