It was about as opposite as two games could have been Tuesday afternoon at Fossum Field.

The Aberdeen Smittys and Sioux Falls West split an American Legion baseball doubleheader. Aberdeen dominated the opener 16-3, and West won a wild 17-14 slugfest in the second game that featured a little bit of everything.

The second contest lasted more than three hours, featured a combined 31 runs, 30 hits, nine errors, three runners thrown out at the plate or third base, had a brief downpour and included an extremely rare intentional walk with the bases loaded to force in a run.

“Game one we put up 16 runs with eight hits, guys just getting on base and doing damage to the baseball, and then game two, kind of had a slow start, didn’t score in the first three innings, and then made some errors in the field, had some mental mistakes on the basepaths and things of that nature,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly. “Defense is what really keeps you in the game, because your offense can go hot, it can go cold. We have a great offense and we just have to put it all together to win games like that.”

Nobody had a bigger day than Casey Vining, who belted three home runs and drove in eight runs. However, the Aberdeen slugger downplayed his round-trippers.

“To be honest, home runs are nice, but putting the ball in play is a lot more important to me,” Vining said. “I thought putting the ball in play was good today, but obviously the home runs come and it showed, putting it up on the scoreboard.”

It was Vining’s hitting prowess that led to a unique situation in the bottom of the sixth inning of the nightcap. With bases loaded in a 15-8 game, West chose to walk Vining intentionally rather than risk a potential grand slam.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Vining said of an intentional walk to force in a run. “It’s not very common, but especially in a game like that, something close. I was putting the ball in play all day, it’s going to happen.”

Gonnelly said he would have done that same thing if he was faced with that situation.

“Good call on their coaches. I would have walked him, too,” Gonnelly said. “If you have three home runs on the day, you don’t need that guy swinging, and Casey responded well to it. Guys like that, they just want to hit. He responded well. He was a good guy in the dugout today to cheer everybody else on.”

Vining got the Aberdeen offense going in the first game, hitting a three-run homer over the leftfield fence in the opening inning. The Smittys exploded for 10 runs in the second frame to break the game open. Talan Dutenhoeffer had a bases-loaded triple to highlight the uprising, while Drew Salfrank and Cooper Eisenbeisz produced back-to-back RBI doubles.

Salfrank finished with three hits, three RBI and three runs in the contest.

However, game two was much different as West bolted out to a 9-0 advantage, before the Smittys roared back. Aberdeen closed the gap to 10-8 in the bottom of the fifth as Vining pounded two more home runs. However, in the comeback process, the Smittys had two guys tagged out at third base to end a pair of innings.

Sioux Falls scored five runs in the top of the sixth inning and had a runner gunned out at the plate, before Aberdeen responded with four runs in the bottom half of the frame. Joran Foss, who had four hits in the game, drove in a pair with a single.

West added two more runs in the top of the seventh. The Smittys scored twice in the bottom of the seventh and had the bases loaded before a ground out ended the game.

Gonnelly was not surprised at the way his players responded to the deficits in the second game.

“All these guys, they’re dogs. They don’t get down. They have that dog mentality, like hey if we’re down, so be it. We’re going to go out there next inning like nothing happened, just forgetting about some of those mistakes and going out there and competing,” Gonnelly said. “They did a heckuva job. They came back, they battled back, at the end of the day just sometimes it’s not enough.”

Vining ended up making back-to-back catches on pop ups in the top of the seventh as the rain was beating down on his face.

“It’s hard to come in, the rain coming down pretty hard,” Vining said, “but just staying focused and staying locked in to the game.”

Phillip Zens and Charlie Phillips each had three hits for the Smittys in the second game, while Vining had another four runs driven in.

Vining talked about the contrast between the two games.

“Just kind of taking it to them the first game, and showing them that we can play baseball and we’re going to beat teams like that,” Vining said, “but the second game, coming out innings 1 through 3, putting the ball in play, just not getting the hits we wanted to fall, but bouncing back, putting the ball in play, making their pitchers work, is what baseball’s all about.”

Interestingly enough, the two teams could face each other in regional play later this month. Aberdeen is one spot ahead of West in the race for homefield advantage in the postseason.

The Smittys, 24-10 on the season, play host to Groton on Monday afternoon at Fossum Field. Aberdeen swept a doubleheader against their Brown County foe earlier this season.

“We never overlook opponents. We always want to play our best game,” Gonnelly said. “Of course they’ve been playing some pretty good baseball, but I think after this break we’re going to come back better than ever.”

Sioux Falls West 000 30 – 3 6 3

Aberdeen Smittys 3(10)3 0x – 16 8 0

Tyler Olson, Ben Little (2), Hugh Barnes (3) and Jaxon DeHaan; Casey Vining and Talan Dutenhoeffer. 2B – Sioux Falls West, Noah Hollingshead; Aberdeen Smittys, Cooper Eisenbeisz, Drew Salfrank, Dutenhoeffer. HR – Aberdeen Smittys, Casey Vining.

Sioux Falls West 102 615 2 – 17 15 4

Aberdeen Smittys 000 354 2 – 14 15 5

Grant Prouty, Jack Kieso (6) and Jaxon DeHaan; Grant Beyer, Jared Klootwyk (5), Cooper Eisenbeisz (6) and Lance Siefken. 2B – Sioux Falls West, Tucker DeHaan, Brock Ades; Aberdeen Smittys, Joran Foss. 3B – Sioux Falls West, Kaden Kirchner; Aberdeen Smittys, Siefken. HR – Sioux Falls West, Jaxon DeHaan; Aberdeen Smittys, Vining 2.