The Aberdeen Smittys split their regular season home finale doubleheader on Sunday.
The Smittys split a pair of games with Mandan, N.D., at Fossum Field. Aberdeen won the first game 7-5, while Mandan won game two 7-3.
The Smittys were clinging to a 3-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but they exploded for four runs to take a 7-2 lead. Matt Swallow and Lucas Lorenz both had triples to highlight the inning.
"Of course two triples in an inning are always big," Aberdeen coach Justin Downes said, "and a sac fly in that inning was, too."
Aberdeen out-hit Mandan 10-6 in the first game. Lorenz added two doubles to go along with his triple. Mike Stotz and Dalton Cox both had two hits for the Smittys.
Mandan out-hit Aberdeen 11-8 in the second game. Lorenz had a triple in the second game, while Stotz, Layne Holzer and Trey Vilhauer all had doubles.
"Two really good baseball games," Downes said. "Both teams played pretty well both games."
Carter Paulson started the first game, while Zach Lundquist came in the fourth inning and finished the game. Zach Andera, Jacob Carrels and Jordan Allbee all pitched in game two. Downes said all of Aberdeen's pitchers were on pitch counts on Sunday as the team is preparing for its regular season finale this week.
"We wanted to keep everybody really limited with the big game coming up on Thursday so that is why we threw so many," Downes said. "Everybody did their job on the mound. We have a huge game on Thursday so we wanted to keep everybody short so we could come back fresh and throw everything we need to at that game on Thursday."
Aberdeen will play at Sioux Falls Post 307 on Thursday in its last region doubleheader of the season. At stake for the Smittys is the No. 1 seed in the region tournament.
"It is huge for us," Downes said about Thursday's doubleheader. "We really want to get that one seed. There is a little bit of a bracketed advantage for being the one seed. We definitely want to go after it."
Mandan|1000130-563
Aberdeen|102040x-7101
Jared Walters and Trevor Leingang; Carter Paulson, Zach Lundquist (4) and Michael Stotz. 2B - Mandan, Walters; Aberdeen, Lucas Lorenz (2). 3B - Mandan, Bryce Andresen; Aberdeen, Lorenz. HR - Mandan, Leingang.
Mandan|2010220-7112
Aberdeen|0100101-383
Parker Harm, Andresen (7) and Leingang; Zach Andera, Jacob Carrels (4), Jordan Albee (6) and John Frisco. 2B - Mandan, Leingang, Logan McDowall; Aberdeen, Stotz, Layne Holzer, Trey Vilhauer. 3B - Aberdeen, Lorenz. HR - Mandan, McDowall.