Hits were at a premium for the Bismarck Senators in their first game against the Mandan A’s on June 26.

They made all of them count, as the Senators walked off the A’s in the ninth inning of their lone West Division counter at Haaland Field, 8-7, before rallying for an 11-11 five-inning tie in the non-counting nightcap of the doubleheader.

“Overall I’m happy with it, coming off a tough split yesterday in Williston,” Bismarck head coach Paxton Miller said. “Boys responded in a good, positive way towards the end of game one. Game two was a little tougher to keep energy, but towards the end we found it. There are a lot of things for us to clean up before region play at the end of July.”

Bismarck and Mandan were almost playing two separate games in the counter, with Bismarck having to rely on walks, hit batters, and a quartet of Mandan errors to push across and Mandan finding a plethora of hits, walks, hit batters and wild pitches to advance their offense.

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That separation started right away in the first inning. While Mandan’s lone run in the top of the first came across after a one-out double by Aaden Pfliger was followed by a wild pitch and a sac fly, the Senators hung three unearned runs on the A’s by taking advantage of two Mandan errors in their half of the inning.

“Something we try to preach as coaches is approach, approach, approach, being able to work counts, hit the ball hard, no matter where it is,” Miller said. “We’ll take an 0-0 barrel over an 0-0 popout, same as we’ll take a 3-2 ball in play over an 0-0 pop fly. Being able to work counts, get deep into their bullpen, that helps as well.”

With neither team’s offense slowing down much despite their disparate ways of producing, it was on each team’s pitchers to try and find ways out of jams.

For the Senators, a pair of double plays came in clutch. One helped to sputter out a rally for the A’s in the second inning and the other did the same in the fifth, with Mandan managing just a single run combined between the two innings despite five baserunners being on base before the twin killings.

For Mandan it was taking advantage of the bottom of Bismarck’s lineup to get outs where it could, as Brett Puliafico and Lucas Farstad went a combined 0-for-7 with a walk, stolen base and run, all by Farstad, in their plate appearances.

“Give credit where credit is due, Mandan hit the ball well and found ways on base,” Miller said. “We got a couple key double plays to help us out and limit big innings and stay away from crooked numbers, which kept us in the game going into extras and then being able to win in the ninth.”

Mandan busted its way into the lead in the top of the fourth, finally overcoming the five runs Bismarck had scored between the first and second with its fourth straight inning of scoring runs, putting up two runs to take a 6-5 lead.

Two sac flies got the job done with an assist to a pair of wild pitches from Bismarck starter Hayden Parent, as both Eli Kleinknecht and Jack Koenig moved from second to third on separate wild pitches before being knocked in by sac flies from Liam Keller and Aaden Pfliger.

One of Bismarck’s four hits leapfrogged them back into the lead in the bottom of the fifth, with Brady Vogel knocking a two-run double to the left-center gap that drove in Aiden Grossmann and Tate Fischer.

Mandan tied the game up in the sixth thanks to Bismarck’s lone error, a single by Connor Janz, who had taken over on the mound for Cole Gaab, a sac bunt and a bloop single, but managed no more despite again leaving two runners in scoring position.

Despite 14 runs being scored to that point, a battle settled in between Janz — who allowed Vogel’s go-ahead double in his first batter faced after coming in for Gaab but was otherwise stymying Bismarck’s offense — and Bismarck reliever Jordan Klein, who induced the rally-killing double play in the fifth and allowed the unearned game-tying run in the sixth.

“(Our pitchers) stepped up in a big way, Parent had a tough time settling in to begin with, but when he found his rhythm, he was pretty good,” Miller said. “We called Klein in in a big situation, and you get a first-pitch groundout for a double play, which was perfect. We get out of that inning clean and then goes the rest of the way, and there isn’t much else you can ask for, two pitchers to go nine innings.”

Each team had their chances to take the lead or, in Bismarck’s case, walk the game off, from the seventh inning on. Mandan put two runners on in the seventh and loaded the bases in the eighth, but a pair of groundouts ended each threat.

For Bismarck, they loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh but Puliafico ended that rally with a strikeout, then put two runners on in the eighth before Seth Kopp and Grossmann struck out back-to-back.

The first one-two-three inning of the game for Bismarck came in the top of the ninth, and that seemed to galvanize Bismarck’s offense in the bottom of the inning.

Their fourth and final hit came to start the inning, with Fischer doubling into the left-center gap. Vogel put a damper on the inning by fouling out, but Kyle Schlobohm put a ball in play and a pair of Mandan errors first allowed Schlobohm to reach and then for Fischer to score despite getting momentarily hung up between third and home.

With the counting game out of the way, both teams rotated players off their benches into their lineups, and gave innings to players who hadn’t spent much time pitching so far.

The result was largely messy and did more to prove how much each team could score in five innings than anything else.

With Bismarck utilizing four pitchers — Farstad, Fischer, Kopp and Cameron Whitted — and Mandan three — Ben Moch, Cash Ternes and Dontay Birdine — it was as much a question of how many outs each would get as it was playing for a win.

“Those non-counters are really fun to throw around different lineups and have a little leeway and see different guys on the mound and see how they do in certain situations,” Miller said. “Everybody on our team hasn’t been able to see the mound yet, and we want to see that, we want to see if they can throw in big innings, can they play this position if needed due to injury.”

The lack of experience on the mound showed. Along with allowing seven more Mandan hits, Bismarck’s four pitchers walked 10, hit three and uncorked four wild pitches.

Mandan’s choices didn’t fare much better, allowing a pair of hits each, combining for eight walks, hitting four batters and spiking seven wild pitches.

“All of them will be seniors next year, so going into spring ball and then next summer as well, being able to compete more on the mound than just this summer, trying to get them better and develop them into pitchers in the future, for their respective high schools or next summer, that’s important,” Miller said.

This time it was Mandan that built the early lead, jumping on Bismarck pitching — as well as benefitting from a pair of errors in the first — to the tune of four runs in the first and five in the fourth.

But for a pair of Bismarck runs in the second and third, the Senators may have leaned towards allowing the game to slip away from them.

A four-spot charged entirely to Ternes, who had to leave the game with an injury in the middle of an at-bat by Schlobohm, pulled Bismarck closer in the bottom of the fourth.

With Dontay Birdine summoned from the pen, he managed to end the fourth without much further damage, but allowed a three-run rally by Bismarck in the fifth, and with Mandan managing just a single run in the top of the fifth thanks to a pair of clutch strikeouts with the bases loaded, that ended the five-hour marathon of a doubleheader in a tie.

“We always say on the offensive side of things, put the ball in play because good things can happen, not every team will make zero errors every single game, it’s not possible, errors are part of baseball,” Miller said. “Being able to capitalize on them is what every team preaches. Defensively though, yeah we have to clean it up, sometimes it’s just throwing a baseball, playing a simple game of catch, and we need to do better at that. The little things go a long ways.”

Only Keller and Zach Weiler played all of both games for the A’s. Keller finished the day 0-for-6 with a walk, a sac fly and bunt each and two RBIs and Weiler was 1-for-4 with a double, three walks, was hit by a pitch, also had a sac fly, scored three runs and drove in another.

Along with that duo for the A’s, game one featured several big performances. Aaden Pfliger was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a sac fly, a stolen base, a run scored and two RBIs. Birdine, before coming back to pitch in game two, was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, a run scored and an RBI in game one. Miken Brahos was 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, a run and an RBI.

In game two, Ben Moch was 2-for-3, walked and scored a run, Cale Anderson was 1-for-2 with two walks, two runs and an RBI and Kai Villbrandt was 2-for-3 with a double, was hit by a pitch and scored a run.

A shorter bench for the Senators meant more players played both games, especially after Klein had to leave the game after getting hit in the head by a pitch in his first at-bat in game two.

Tristan Schulz played a big role in Bismarck’s win and tie. Collecting two of Bismarck’s four hits in game one, he finished the doubleheader 3-for-5 with two walks, was also hit by a pitch after replacing Klein in the lineup in game two, stole three bases and scored five of Bismarck’s 19 runs.

Along with his inning on the mound in game two, Fischer finished the doubleheader 1-for-5 with a double, three walks, three runs scored and an RBI. Kyle Schlobohm was 3-for-3 with a double, a walk, a stolen base, a run scored and three RBIs in game two.

“(Schulz) has been good all year in the leadoff spot, finding ways on base,” Miller said. “Whether that’s hitting the ball hard into the outfield or working a count and finding his way on via walk, he’s done everything we’ve asked of him in the leadoff spot. […] He comes in off the bench, not expecting to play game two, but our starting shortstop goes down, maybe with a concussion, I don’t think it will be, but you never know.”

“Kyle was really good at the plate today, he’s been working through some injuries so I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to swing it well today but he kept finding barrels and kept finding gaps and that’s all you can ask of a guy.”

Bismarck Senators 8, Mandan A’s 7, 9 inn.

MAN;112;201;000;–;7;13;5

BIS;320;020;001;–;8;4;1

Cole Gaab, Connor Janz (5) and Donaven Birdine; Hayden Parent, Jordan Klein (5) and Tate Fischer. W — Klein. L — Janz.

Highlights: Mandan — Aaden Pfliger 3-for-4, 2 2B, Sac fly, SB, R, 2 RBIs; Zach Weiler 1-for-4, 2B, Sac fly, R, RBI; Dontay Birdine 2-for-4, 2B, BB, R, RBI; Miken Brahos 2-for-3, 2B, 2 BB, R, RBI; Dn. Birdine 2-for-5; Eli Kleinknecht 0-for-1, BB, R; Jack Koenig 1-for-4, BB, SB, R; Gaab 1-for-4, BB, SB, 4.1 IP, 1 H, 7 R (4 ER), 7 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP; Janz 1-for-2, HBP, R, 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP. Bismarck — Tristan Schulz 2-for-4, BB, 2 SB, 2 R; Drayden Dockter 0-for-2, SB, R, RBI; Aidan Grossmann 0-for-2, 3 BB, SB, 2 R; Fischer 1-for-3, 2B, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI; Brady Vogel 1-for-5, 2B, SB, 2 RBIs; Lucas Farstad 0-for-3, BB, SB, R; Parent BB, HBP, 4 IP, 9 H, 6 R (6 ER), 4 BB, 1 K, 5 WP; Klein 0-for-3, BB, Sac fly, RBI, 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP.

Mandan A’s 11, Bismarck Senators 11

MAN;405;11;–;11;7;3

BIS;022;43;–;11;6;3

Ben Moch, Cash Ternes (3), Dontay Birdine (4) and Cale Anderson; Farstad, Fischer (3), Seth Kopp (4), Cameron Whitted (5) and Parent.

Highlights: Mandan — Weiler 3 BB, HBP, 2 R; Anderson 1-for-2, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI; Kai Villbrandt 2-for-3, 2B, HBP, R; Logan Kolosky 1-for-4, SB, R, 2 RBIs; Moch 2-for-3, BB, R, 2 IP, 2 H, 4 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 1 K, 3 HBP, 1 WP; Ternes 0-for-1, 2 BB, R, 1 IP, 2 H, 4 R (3 ER), 5 BB, 0 K, 2 WP; Birdine 2 IP, 2 H, 3 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 4 WP. Bismarck — Tristan Schulz 1-for-1, BB, HBP, SB, 3 R; Grossmann 0-for-1, BB, HBP, Sac fly, RBI; Kyle Schlobohm 3-for-3, 2B, BB, SB, R, 3 RBIs; Vogel SB, 2 R; Farstad 1-for-3, BB, 2 R, 2 IP, 4 H, 4 R (1 ER), 3 BB, 1 K, 1 WP; Fischer 0-for-2, BB, R, 1 IP, 2 H, 5 R (5 ER), 5 BB, 0 K, 1 WP; Kopp 1-for-3, BB, 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 2 WP; Whitted 0-for-1, 2 BB, 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 3 K, 2 HBP.

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