RAPID CITY - A pair of losses at the Marshall Tubbs Classic on Friday night has Rapid City Post 22 looking for answers as the American Legion baseball regular season winds to a close.

Spearfish got a big boost over a potential Region 3A tournament opponent, rallying with five unanswered runs over the final three innings to down Post 22, 5-2.

In the final game of the day, the Aberdeen Post 24 Smittys withstood a late Rapid City rally to win 9-8 over the hard hats at Fitzgerald Stadium.

"We're not playing the game very well, and we've got to pick it up," said Post 22 coach Dave Ploof. "We're two-and-a-half steps behind. Both ball clubs competed a lot better than we did today."

Aberdeen overcame a 4-3 deficit in a big way with a six-run outburst in the fourth inning. The Smittys' five hits and two Post 22 errors helped fuel

the run, which saw nine Aberdeen batters in the inning.

"That was big inning for us. We put the ball in play," said Aberdeen coach Mark Gulseth. "We hit the ball a little better than we have the last few games.

Rapid City added two runs in the fifth and one each in the final three innings. Post 22 cut the lead to 9-8 in the final frame and had runners aboard, but Aberdeen secured the win.

"We hit it right at them and they made all the plays," said Ploof of Aberdeen. "We had some pitchers out there that couldn't do the job and they jumped and got a bunch of runs."

As in the nightcap against Aberdeen, Post 22 opened with two runs in the first inning, but couldn't hold the lead.

Post 164 narrowed the gap with a run in the fifth, and two runs each in the six and seventh to put the game away.

Jess Cooper, Ryan Royer and Chase Bridges each had two hits for Post 164. Royer and Allen Hemeyer doubled for Spearfish.

Jarrett Jensen had a double for Post 22, held to six hits for the game.

Justin Kemp came on in relief, holding Rapid City to two hits in one-and two-third innings to earn the pitching win for Spearfish. Starter Jordan Johnson went five and one-third innings and gave up two runs and four hits, striking out one and walking four.

Kolton Emery took the loss for Rapid City.

In other Marshall Tubbs games Friday, Monarch High School of Denver scored a pair of runs in the first inning and the lead held up for a 2-0 win over Aberdeen in a game rescheduled from a rainy Thursday.

Tom Grove, Brock Thomas and Donte Bledsoe each had two hits to lead the Rapid City Post 22 Split Squad to a 9-1 win over St. Mary's of Colorado Springs, Colo. Rapid City pitcher Alex Hamilton gave up just three hits.

Denver Monarch won its second game of the day, 5-2, to hand Colorado Springs its second loss of the day.

Post 22 notes: Rapid City Post 22's Jordan Mette was honored Friday night as the recipient of a scholarship sponsored by the family of Kevin Morsching, a former Post 22 and South Dakota State University pitcher who died last year in a skateboarding accident in Brookings. Mette is a student at the University of Wyoming. Taylor Morsching, a cousin of Kevin and Kirby Morsching, plays for Aberdeen Post 24.

The games were over when…

Spearfish chased Post 22 starter Kolton Emery with two runs on three hits in the seventh inning.

Post 22 pushed Aberdeen to the final out in the seventh, but the Smittys' six-run fourth inning was too much to overcome.

The MVPs were …

The bottom of the batting order for both Spearfish and Aberdeen. The bottom two hitters for Spearfish, Chase Bridges and Cody Rosenau combined for three of Post 164's 11 hits. Aberdeen's No. 9 hitter Matt Kervin was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

On deck …

Post 22 tries to end the regular season on a winning note, taking on Denver Monarch at 7:30 p.m.

At 10 a.m., a Spearfish-Aberdeen matchup suspended by rain on Thursday will resume at the top of the sixth inning with the score tied at 3-3.

The Rapid City Split Squad plays Aberdeen at Noon, with the Colorado Springs-Spearfish matchup set for 2:30 p.m. The Split Squad plays Denver Monarch at 5 p.m.