SPEARFISH — The Brookings Bandits opened their road trip with a split of a doubleheader against Spearfish on Tuesday night. The Bandits are now 5-3 on the season and will play another doubleheader against the Rapid City Hardhats beginning Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Game 1: Spearfish 6, Brookings 1

Offense was tough to find for the Bandits in the opening game of the doubleheader as they ran into a strong pitching performance by Jack Branum.  Branum allowed just one earned run on four hits and a pair of walks while striking out two batters over 6.1 innings to set the tone and Spearfish gave him some early run support with Cody Chapman’s sacrifice fly and Haylon Heiting’s RBI single in the bottom of the first inning.

The Bandits cut the lead in half in the top of the fourth inning when Sam Johnson singled and stole second base to get into scoring position for Jon Kahler’s RBI single butSpearfish got the run back in the bottom of the fourth inning on Tucker Olson’s RBI single.

Sean Sewell added an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth and Spearfish tacked on two more runs on Branum’s RBI single and Chapman’s RBI double to earn the victory.

Austin Clark took the loss for the Bandits, allowing six runs (three earned) on 10 hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

Johnson went 1-for-3 with a pair of stolen bases and a run scored while Kahler went 1-for-2 with an RBI. Jack Merritt went 1-for-3 with an RBI, David Brink and Will Conrad each drew walks and Owen Schneider stole a pair of bases in the loss.

Game 2: Brookings 10, Spearfish 4 (8 inn.)

The Bandits erupted for eight runs in the eighth inning to earn a split of the doubleheader in the night cap.

Schneider put the Bandits on the board with an RBI single in the top of the second inning and Brookings extended its lead when Brink drove in a run with a single of his own to put the Bandits up 2-0.

But Spearfish came back, using a bases-loaded walk by Oliver Bruner in the bottom of the sixth inning and a run-scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings.

Clark broke the tie with a one-out RBI double in the top of the eighth and the floodgates opened with Tate Helmbolt driving in a run on a single, Merritt driving in a run with a double, Brink drawing a bases-loaded walk, Johnson delivering an RBI single and two runs scoring on an error to give the Bandits a 10-2 lead.

Spearfish scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on a Will Scharff double and a lineout by Olson but Helmbolt closed the game out for the win.

The Bandits used five different pitchers to earn the win including Ryan Lockrem (2 IP, 2 BB, 2 K), Conrad (2 IP, 3 K), Kahler (IP), Tane Freidrich (0.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 1 K) and Helmbolt (2.1 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 K).

All nine starters had a hit in the win for the Bandits with Merritt going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI and Schneider going 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.