The Aberdeen Smittys got back to their winning ways Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep of Huron at Fossum Field.

The Smittys claimed a 14-9 shootout in game one, then squeezed out a 4-3 victory in the nightcap.

“It was massive for us,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly of the wins. “We have a tough opponent (Sunday) and it feels like we haven’t played baseball in a while with all the rain in the state. So it’s nice to get out here just to play the game, win, lose or draw. We happened to come out on top, so I’d say it’s a pretty good day.”

The wins came on the heels of a pair of losses to Sioux Falls East earlier in the week, in which the Smittys scratched across four total runs. Aberdeen eclipsed that mark in the second inning alone on Saturday, putting up a 6-spot to take a commanding lead.

“That’s kind of our MO, get guys on and get some timely hits, even put a charge in one,” Gonnelly said, referencing a Casey Vining homer that came later in the contest. “We got a home run in game one. (Huron) had a bunch of bloop hits. Just a different mentality there, and it worked for them, but what ours did worked in the long run so we’re going to keep going with it.”

Up 6-2 after that stanza, Aberdeen fell behind 7-6 after a four-run Huron fourth and 9-6 after the Huron half of the sixth inning.

But that Vining home run put a charge in the Smittys in the bottom half of the sixth, as Aberdeen exploded for eight runs on a pair of walks, two errors and four hits.

Vining led off the inning with a walk before providing the fireworks with a 2-out, 3-run shot to left.

After walking off with the game one win, Aberdeen turned to pitching to get the win in game two. Drew Salfrank took the mound and tossed five scoreless innings before allowing three runs – one unearned – late in the game.

“As a pitcher, my biggest thing is you gotta throw strikes,” Salfrank said. “No free passes. I feel like I did a pretty good job at that.”

Salfrank tossed a complete game, giving up seven hits and striking out six.

“It’s big for the team,” Gonnelly said of the complete-game outing. “Saves a lot of arms. If we can get any of our pitchers to go a complete game, that’s a big one for us. He did a phenomenal job. … I tell the guys, what’s the best pitch in baseball? Some guys will say fastball, some will say curveball, changeup. The best pitch in baseball is a strike. If you can get the ball over the plate and challenge the offense to put the ball in play, our defense is going to back them up. So if we can just throw strikes, that’s a huge win for us.“

Despite the late surge from Huron, Salfrank said he wasn’t feeling nervous on the mound.

“I got faith in our defense,” he said. “Even if they were to tie it up or take the lead, I got faith in our bats to win it in the seventh. I wasn’t super nervous.”

Cooper Eisenbeisz finished the day with five hits, two runs scored and three driven in. Salfrank also had three hits in game one, as did Talan Dutenhoeffer.

The wins come one day ahead of a doubleheader date with Harrisburg, who will visit Fossum Field this afternoon with first pitch set for 2 p.m.

‘They’re one of the top-ranked teams in the state,” Salfrank said, “so to even get one would be huge for us. Hopefully two, but one would be great.”

“They’re a tough team, but we’re a good team, too,” Gonnelly said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We could be playing the New York Yankees, we could be playing the whoevers of whatever, but we’re going to go and play our game and do the best that we absolutely can. If we can play like we did today, we’re going to be alright.”

Huron 111 402 0 – 9 13 4

Aberdeen Smittys 060 008 x – 14 16 1

Jack Pederson, Logan Leyendecker (6) and Kolton Ogle. Jackson Welke, Donnie Soderlund (4) and Talan Dutenhoeffer. 2B – Huron, Tanner Gilbert, Pederson; Aberdeen Smittys, Drew Salfrank 2, Jaran Foss, Philip Zens, Dutenhoeffer. 3B – Huron, Trace Wenz. HR – Aberdeen Smittys, Casey Vining.

Huron 000 002 1 – 3 7 0

Aberdeen Smittys 202 000 x – 4 8 1

Layne Wenzel, Cooper Bischoff (6) and Brady Feenstra. Drew Salfrank and Lance Siefken. 2B – Hurson, Jack Pederson.