The Aberdeen Smittys solved one issue on Monday, only to have another one spring up.

The local squad got some timely hitting, but had a tough time stopping the opposition, falling to Harrisburg Gold by margins of 7-3 and 20-11 in American Legion baseball at Fossum Field.

“It just seems like when we pitch good, we can’t hit the ball,” said Smittys coach Josh Steinwandt, “and then once we can hit the ball, then we can’t pitch good.”

Aberdeen finished with more hits in the twinbill than Harrisburg, but struggled on the mound, issuing 13 walks in the second game alone.

“We’re just missing the consistency part,” Steinwandt said. “The past couple of weeks we’ve been struggling hitting, and then today we finally figured it out, and then now we can’t throw strikes. … We just need to be more consistent on both ends of the ball and it will be OK.”

After Harrisburg scored the first run of the day, the Smittys took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning of the opener thanks to a pair of errors.

However, the visitors scored six unanswered runs to take control. Aberdeen added one more run in the bottom of the third when Joe Cogley doubled and scored on a fielder’s choice.

The second contest was tight early with the score tied at 3-3 after two innings. After Harrisburg scored three times in the top of the first, the Smittys responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame when Cogley had an RBI triple and scored on a double by Michael Dutenhoffer. Aberdeen then tied the score on Karson Borge’s RBI double in the second.

Harrisburg led 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth when the Smittys got a timely hit to tie the score. Jackson Post delivered a two-out two-run single to level the contest.

That’s when things turned in a big way, as Harrisburg scored a dozen unanswered runs, sixth in the fifth and six more in the sixth.

“It’s just one thing goes on, another goes off, just every game,” Cogley said. “I feel like if you compare us to a lot of the teams, defensively we’re just up there with the best of them, like lineup we’re really good, we’ve had good pitching, and it’s just one thing falls out.”

Just when it looked like the game would end on a 10-run rule, the Smittys scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Jehiel Aviles started the surge with a single and Borge plated him with a triple before scoring on a passed ball. Aberdeen proceeded to score three two-out runs to extend the game. One run scored on error, Branson Peterson drove in a run with a double, and the last run scored on a wild pitch.

Harrisburg tacked on three more runs in the top of the seventh, before Aberdeen added one more run in the bottom half on an RBI single by Jackson Post.

Cogley had three hits, while Aviles, Borge and Post each contributed two. Post knocked in three runs.

As the season is quickly winding to a close, Cogley talked about what the Smittys need to do going forward.

“Really, it’s just cleaning up every aspect of the game just a little bit more,” Cogley said. “The art of winning games, too. … That’s just really our biggest problem right now is finding a way to win games, get everything working at the same time. We’ve seen it if it all goes good.”

Aberdeen plays at Groton this evening. Steinwandt said the team needs to be ready from the opening pitch.

“It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to come ready to play, and we’re going to have to show up on both ends of the ball, we’re going to have to throw strikes and we’re going to have to hit the ball,” Steinwandt said. “You can’t overlook them. Obviously, they’ve been winning a lot of ball of games and they’re a good small-town team.”

As the Smittys wrap up their regular season in the next couple of weeks, Steinwandt knows the potential his squad possesses.

“We get a couple of wins down the road and see what happens. We’re just missing that one piece of baseball,” Steinwandt said. “It seems like every time we lose we’re missing one key part of baseball, and once we figure that out I think we can be a really good team, and we’ve shown we can be a good team once we find all three pieces of the game. We just have to do better at finding that last piece.”

Harrisburg Gold 142 000 0 – 7 5 3

Aberdeen Smittys 201 000 0 – 3 6 2

Andrew Dierks, Dalton Wendling (6) and Griffin Schlapkohl; Branson Peterson, Jackson Post (3) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Harrisburg Gold, Nick Riley; Aberdeen Smittys, Joe Cogley, Jackson Post.

Harrisburg Gold 301 166 3 – 20 15 1

Aberdeen Smittys 210 205 1 – 11 15 2

Madden Wendling, Owen Sechser (7) and Dalton Wendling; Mason Backous, Drake Soderlund (4), JaSean Rivera (5), Karson Borge (6) and Levi Hoffman. 2B – Harrisburg, D. Wendling 2, Andrew Dierks, Nick Riley, Wyatt Witwicki; Aberdeen Smittys, Branson Peterson, Borge, Michael Dutenhoffer. 3B – Aberdeen Smittys, Joe Cogley, Borge.