The Aberdeen Smittys will open up the Class A high school baseball playoffs against a familiar foe.

The local squad will square off against O’Gorman in the best of three series which starts tonight in Sioux Falls. The two teams just faced each other last Saturday at Fossum Field in Aberdeen with O’Gorman recording a sweep.

Smittys coach Nathan Gonnelly said his players are ready to go.

“We’ve just got to play our brand of baseball. I talked a lot about that last year and I’ve been telling the boys about that this year too, just playing with energy,” Gonnelly said. “We have the energy in the dugout. When we have the energy we’re at our best, and not getting down on ourselves. If you make an error just wash it. I know it’s tough to do, but we’ve gotten a lot better at that.”

The Smittys, who are coming off a sweep over Huron to cap the regular season, are not intimidated about the prospect of facing a team that just swept them on their home diamond.

“Obviously, you learn something from every game that you play. Just from that weekend as a whole, just our small ball, getting the bunts down, executing the hit and runs, executing the delay steals,” Gonnelly said. “Getting those hard-nosed kind of runs is our fame here. We’re going to throw the kitchen sink at these guys. We’re ready to come and ball out.”

If there has been one tell-tale element between winning and coming up short this spring for Aberdeen it’s been timely hitting. When the Smittys get those crucial hits, they are difficult to stop. When they don’t, it’s been tough to produce enough runs.

“That’s what we’ve been working on. Here’s our approach 0-0; here’s our approach 0-2,” Gonnelly said. “We’ve just got to put the ball in play. … Letting the ball eat a little bit, letting our bats do their thing and just play great baseball, and hopefully get those timely hits.”

Despite entering the post season as the 14th seed, the Smittys are determined to pack a bunch against third-seeded O’Gorman and don’t mind wearing the underdog label.

“If you ask any coach in the state or in the country, they’re going to say the scariest team is the team that has nothing to lose. We’re of that mindset,” Gonnelly said. “We’re going to go out there and do everything that we can in our power to win baseball games.”

There are two games scheduled for this evening at 5 and 7:30 p.m. If a third game is needed, that will take place on Tuesday.

Gonnelly knows how important it is to win the opening game and not be forced to win back-to-back games to stay alive in the playoffs.

“It’s so important. Statistically you look at the team that wins Game 1, wins a big percentage of the series. Game one is really important,” Gonnelly said. “We’re going to have our best lineup out there. We’re going to have guys who are able to pitch, hit, field, you name it, we got it.”

The Smittys have had a solid week of preparation and are now ready to hit the postseason.

“The boys have really come together,” Gonnelly said. “They’ve had a couple of days of hard practices and we’re just ready to get on the bus (Friday) and go play OG.”