The curtain came down at Fossum Field in the best way possible for the Aberdeen Smittys Tuesday night.

The Smittys grabbed a pair of key victories over Huron, 5-4 and 4-2 in American Legion baseball action.

“This year we’ve lost a lot of close games,” said Smittys coach Brandon Kusler. “Any close game we’re in, it seems like we’re on the losing end of it. Obviously, it feels good to be on this side.”

Aberdeen trailed in the opener before Ethan Kjenstad delivered a two-out two-run double in the fifth inning to put the Smittys on top. It turned out to be the game-winning hit.

“I went up there, took a few pitches and really just put a bat on a ball,” Kjenstad said. “The pitcher was throwing really hard, so I just put a bat on the ball. The velocity did the work.”

Kjenstad, who also had an RBI-double earlier in the contest, said it was special to be able to come through in the clutch.

“It felt really nice. That hit won us the game,” Kjenstad said. “I’m just so thankful that I was able to get the job done for our team.”

Kjenstad has been one of the team’s top producers the past couple of weeks and continued in that role against Huron.

“He came up big for us. He’s been big for us the last few weeks, especially,” Kusler said. “He’s seeing the ball well and hitting balls hard. That’s what we ask of him. He’s doing a great job at the plate. That was definitely a big knock from him in game one.”

Nick Clemens also had a run-scoring hit in the victory.

The Smittys then capped off the sweep with some key hits in the second game.

Carter Dingman and Drew Salfrank each drove in runs in the second inning, Brock Martin drove in a run in the fourth and Josh Steinwandt crushed a ball over the right field fence to lead off the fifth.

“That’s what we’ve been preaching all year, find a way to do it. We had some guys come up in some big spots when it really counted. That was enough for us tonight,” Kusler said. “Josh Steinwandt going yard gave us a little bit of a cushion there. That helps. It only took us 40 games for us to get our first home run of the year, so that was nice.”

Steinwandt and Dingman each had pair of hits in the victory.

Meanwhile, Salfrank overcame a rough start to pitch into the seventh inning for the Smittys.

“He kind of got off to a shaky start in the first inning. That’s tends to be his Achilles heel a little bit, that first inning. He just has to try to get out of that,” Kusler said. “He got out of it. He minimized it to just one run and then he gave us a great start after that. He was good for us.”

Kusler also pointed out the pitching effort of Martin in the first contest.

“Even in game one, I thought Brock Martin did an excellent job,” Kusler said. “We didn’t give him a whole lot of help defensively, but I thought he definitely took some strides forward tonight with his start.”

The win pushed Aberdeen’s season record to 21-18 on the season and provided a fitting end to the home schedule for the squad.

“It feels good to end the year on Fossum with a sweep against a good team,” Kjenstad said. “We needed these two wins and I think we’re playing good baseball right now.”

The Smittys now finish up the year on the road, starting with two games today in Mandan, N.D. Aberdeen also has two big league games on Saturday in Brookings against Brookings and Yankton.

“We just have to keep that same approach. We have to go out and just have to beat teams. They’re not going to hand us games,” Kusler said. “We just have to go beat them, but these two wins tonight were huge for us.”

Huron 200 200 0 – 4 6 2

Aberdeen Smittys 102 020 x – 5 5 4

Johnny Hernandez, Dawson Rogers (5), Bischoff (6) and Tyson Lien; Brock Martin, Casey Vining (5) and Andrew Richardson. 2B – Aberdeen Smittys, Ethan Kjenstad 2. 3B – Aberdeen Smittys, Brian Holmstrom.

Huron 100 010 0 – 2 5 3

Aberdeen Smittys 020 110 x – 4 7 0

Layne Wenzel, Pedersen (5) and Tyson Lien; Drew Salfrank, Nick Clemens (7) and Andrew Woehl. 2B – Aberdeen Smittys, Josh Steinwandt, Carter Dingman. HR – Aberdeen Smittys, Steinwandt.