The Aberdeen Smittys split their American Legion baseball doubleheader against the Renner Royals on Tuesday night, winning 9-1 in the first game and then taking a 4-0 loss in the second game at Fossum Field.
Aberdeen received a pitching gem from Brandon Peterson, who allowed just one hit in the opener.
“I thought Branson pitched great,” said Smittys coach Josh Steinwandt. “He had a great game, only giving up one hit.”
Peterson got major run support when the squad broke the game open with six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“It helped when we got those runs in the fifth inning,” Peterson said, “but I feel like I executed my pitches pretty well, so I think that was really important for us.”
In the bottom of the first inning, Jehiel Aviles hit single down the left field line as the leadoff hitter and later scored on a wild pitch to put Aberdeen in front.
Renner tied the score in the top of the fourth and the Smittys responded in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single from Benny Eisenbeisz.
That set the stage for the fifth inning when the hosts plated six runs.
Aberdeen scored on a wild pitch followed by RBI singles from Joe Cogley, Levi Hoffman, Drake Soderlund and Wheeler Malsam to push the margin to 7-1. A Renner error led to the final run of the frame.
The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth, but Peterson got out of the jam, recording three consecutive outs, one by strikeout, without allowing a run.
“That was really big,” Peterson said. “I didn’t know if I could get out of that, but I trusted my defense and myself, and just went up there and threw my pitches, did what I needed to and got myself out of it.”
Aberdeen tacked on one more run in the sixth when Jackson Post scored on an error.
In the second game, the Smittys struggled to get on base, recording just two hits.
Renner put up single runs in the first and second innings, and two more in the third.
Post had a single in the third, and Malsam added a single in the seventh for Aberdeen.
Even in the loss, Steinwandt said he thought his team played well.
“In game two, as weird as it sounds, I think we had the best offensive game of the season,” Steinwandt said. “The balls just went right to people, but we were barreling a ton of balls. That’s just baseball. Sometimes you barrel it and it goes right to people and that’s unfortunate.”
The Smittys will play again tonight when they host Mitchell in a doubleheader starting at 5.
“The boys are playing good baseball right now,” Steinwandt said. “I think we’ll build on this (Wednesday) and come out and have a lot of energy.”
Renner 000 100 0 – 1 1 2
Aberdeen Smittys 100 161 x – 9 8 3
Landon Nohrenberg, Sawyer Konechne (5) and Blaine Heitmann; Branson Peterson, Porter Lozenski (7) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Aberdeen Smittys, Drake Soderland, Jackson Post.
Renner 112 000 0 – 4 7 2
Aberdeen Smittys 000 000 0 – 0 2 1
Parker Scheidt and Sam Donohoe; Carsen Hofland, Porter Lozenski (3) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Renner, Donohoe 2, Evan Schoenfelder, Owen Lechtenberg.
