The Aberdeen Smittys put together two complete games on Friday night at Fossum Field.

The Smittys defeated the Fargo Davies Eagles in an American Legion baseball doubleheader, winning the first game 12-2 in six innings, and taking the second game by a score of 17-7 in six innings.

In Game 1, the Smittys wasted little time in taking the lead in the first inning. After forcing three quick outs on defense, the Smittys went on the offensive. Aberdeen started the game with four straight hits.

Phillip Zens drove in Drew Salfrank on a triple to put the Smittys on the board, before Zens scored on an RBI single by Jaiden Smith.

Ethan Kjenstad then hit a sacrifice fly ball which included an error on Fargo Davies to give the Smittys a commanding 4-0 lead.

Fargo Davies answered back with one run apiece in both the second and third innings to cut the Smittys lead in half at 4-2. The Smittys responded with two more runs in the fourth inning.

Zens was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, sending Andrew Woehl across the plate, before Smith hit a sacrifice fly to send Jackson Welke home to make the score 6-2.

After a scoreless fifth inning, the Smittys put the game away with a six-run sixth inning. Smith hammered a bases-loaded triple, scoring Welke, Zens, and Salfrank. Casey Vining added an RBI-single before Woehl ended the game with a two-run single.

The Smittys finished game one with 13 hits. Smith powered the win by driving in five runs.

Smittys coach Brandon Kusler was glad to see the team take advantage of the lead and finish the job.

“We just talked about that after the game, is all year long we have to go finish teams off. We have to go bury them when we have the opportunity and we have those early leads,” Kusler said. “We have to go finish teams. because no lead is ever going to be safe. We have to go bury teams, and that’s what we did.”

Game 2 began the exact opposite of the first game as Fargo Davies took an early 1-0 lead in the opening inning. Kusler said his team was not the least bit worried after the visitors scored first.

“The mindset is always we have to score anyways to win, so that one run in the first, we just have to brush that off,” Kusler said. “We’re going to come alive in game two, and yeah, they did.”

Kusler was also pleased with the job Zane Backous did on the mound in game two.

“Zane did a really good job starting on the mound,” Kusler said. “We kept him a little short just because we wanted to see some other guys in there, but he did a really good job of throwing off the zone, attacking hitters, and throwing strikes.”

Backous also led the charge for the Smittys at the plate in the bottom of the second inning. His RBI triple sent Vining across the plate to tie the score at one apiece. Backous then stole home plate, giving the Smittys a 2-1 advantage. The Smittys tacked on four more runs in the frame as Gavyn Jaragoske, Salfrank, Zens, and Vining and each drove in a run.

Kusler said that fundamental baseball led to the string of runs in both the second and third innings.

“Just putting together good AB’s, and doing a lot of jobs that (weren’t) flashy doubles and stuff. Just good situational baseball really,” Kusler said. “Moving guys around, getting on base, stealing, and then some guys came up with some big hits. Jaiden Smith had a big day at the plate. Casey (Vining) ended up having a few knocks as well, so guys came through when they needed to.”

The Smittys poured on seven more runs in the third to increase their lead to 13-1. Backous drove in a pair, Zens, Vining, Kjenstad, and Cooper Eisenbiesz each drove in one run, and another run came in on one of Fargo’s eight errors in the contest.

Fargo Davies sliced the deficit to 15-7 with two runs in the fourth, a trio of runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth, before Aberdeen closed out the game with Smith cranking a two-run triple, giving the Smittys a 17-7 victory.

After two tough losses in Watertown on Tuesday, Kusler said improvement on the mound was the big difference against Fargo.

“I think definitely our pitchers throwing strikes (was a factor). I think that’s one thing we struggled with, especially against game one in Watertown. We just gave them way too many free passes and they made us pay for it,” Kusler said. “So, it starts on the mound, just our guys attacking hitters all night.”

Kusler was also pleased to see his team come through at the plate throughout both games.

“The bats coming alive, coming through with some big hits, we didn’t have that Tuesday night in Watertown. We were getting base runners on and we just weren’t getting them in. Today we got them in, so that was good to see.”

While there were plenty of positives to take away from Friday’s victories, Kusler knows there is still work to be done.

“It was good to see some more live pitching,” Kusler said. “Our bats were good today, but we could be a lot better, and we could have even better at-bats. Just continuing to see live pitching as we move forward in the next few weeks is going to be huge for us, and today was a step in the right direction.”

Aberdeen travels to Lake Norden on Tuesday.

Fargo Davies 011 000 – 2 6 2

Aberdeen Smittys 400 206 – 12 13 2

Brady Haiskanen, L. Deibert (6) and B. Chase; Drew Salfrank, Casey Vining (6) and Andrew Woehl. 2B – Fargo Davies, E. Erickson; Aberdeen Smittys, Phillip Zens. 3B – Aberdeen Smittys, Jaiden Smith, Zens.

Fargo Davies 100 231 – 7 7 8

Aberdeen Smittys 067 202 – 17 9 3

Brady Hecker, Matthew Nelson (4), E. Erickson (5) and B. Chase; Zane Backous, Jackson Welke (5) and Andrew Ristau-Richardson. 2B – Fargo Davies, Keegan Wessels; Aberdeen Smittys, Casey Vining, Backous. 3B – Fargo Davies, Grant Matter; Aberdeen Smittys, Vining, Jaiden Smith.