The Aberdeen Smittys had some chances at Fossum Field Saturday afternoon, but could not cash in when it mattered most.

The Smittys fell to O’Gorman 8-5 and 11-1 in high school baseball action. The hosts led in the opener and had late rallies fall short in both contests.

Jaxon Ladner doubled and later stole home for Aberdeen’s first run and Grant Beyer had a sacrifice fly in the third inning for another run.

However, O’Gorman erased that two-run deficit in the first game with a five-run fourth inning. Aberdeen left a combined dozen runners on base in the twinbill, including the bases loaded in one frame of the second game.

“That’s what we told these guys, too,” said Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly. “Hey, if we can stop the bleeding on those bad innings and we can execute when we have runners in scoring position, we got two different ball games.”

O’Gorman scored eight unanswered runs in the first game before the Smittys rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Bennett Eisenbeisz started the scoring with an inside-the-park home run.

“Every time rounding third, you see that home plate, you’re thinking man I gotta get there,” Eisenbeisz said. “I just gotta get there.”

Eisenbeisz made up his mind to go for broke when he saw the fielder’s approach to go after the ball.

“I was thinking about it and then I saw him not hustling to the ball,” Eisenbeisz said, “and I’m like you know what, might as well go home.”

That hit was followed by a double from Jehiel Aviles, who scored on a triple by Beyer. He later scored on a ground out to cut the margin to 8-5. Aberdeen put another runner on base before the final out was recorded.

“We layed down for a couple of innings after that (five-run fourth),” Beyer said, “and by the time we got going again, it was already the seventh, and just too little, too late at that point.”

O’Gorman scored in all five innings of the nightcap. While the Smittys came to life late, again there were missed opportunities as Aberdeen left the bases loaded in the fourth, and had runners on first and third with one out in the seventh before a game-ending double play.

“Timely hitting is a big factor. We struggled today with that,” Beyer said. “Those are the hits you gotta have.”

Aberdeen did not issue a ton of walks, it’s just that O’Gorman produced the key hits when it needed them.

“It was nice to have a game with a lot of action,” Beyer said. “Not many walks and that type of thing. We couldn’t get hits when we needed them.”

Beyer had two hits in each game and drove in a pair of runs in the first game.

Aviles and Eisenbeisz each collected two hits in the first game.

“We just need to put a couple things together and we’ll start hitting the ball when we need to start hitting the ball,” Eisenbeisz said, “and then everything will just come together.”

Gonnelly is not faulting the guys for a lack of effort.

“These guys have been fighting hard,” Gonnelly said. “They’ve got school right now, they’ve got track, they’ve got baseball. It’s kind of that time of the year where everything is kind of scrunched in together in one schedule.”

The Smittys have their last high school doubleheader today when they host Huron at 1 p.m. at Fossum Field.

The games are crucial as Aberdeen is fighting for a berth in the upcoming postseason.

“We’re going to be playing hard,” Beyer said. “We gotta make sure we win these.”

Gonnelly believes his players will be ready go to this afternoon.

“They’re big games (Sunday),” Gonnelly said. “I believe our boys, they’re going to come out with a vengeance, I think.”

O’Gorman 000 510 2 – 8 9 0

Aberdeen Smittys 011 000 3 – 5 8 0

Jackson Bjorkman, L. Hillman (6), Isaac Tobin (7) and Zach Sprenkle; Joran Foss, Jared Klootwyk (5) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – O’Gorman, Sprenkle; Aberdeen Smittysm Jehiel Aviles, Jaxon Ladner. 3B – O’Gorman, Bjorkman 2; Aberdeen Smittys, Grant Beyer. HR – Aberdeen Smittys, Bennett Eisenbeisz.

O’Gorman 141 14 – 11 12 0

Aberdeen Smittys 000 01 – 1 3 3

John Lent and Andrew Bloom; Michael Dutenhoffer, Karson Borge (3) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – O’Gorman, Rylan Arbogast 2, Brogan Moffitt, Sully Schlimgen.