Postseason baseball is in the air as the Aberdeen Smittys will compete for a spot in next week’s Class A American Legion State Tournament.

The Smittys will travel to Watertown for a best two-out-of-three series today and Friday in the opening round of the playoffs. Smittys coach Brandon Kusler said his team has big expectations.

“The expectations are high and I think all the guys on the team have the exact same expectations and that’s just to go out and compete,” Kusler said. “I think the expectation is just to go beat them, go beat them two out of three.”

During the regular season, Watertown won three of the four games against the Smittys, all in the month of May, including two shutouts. Kusler attributed the losses to several factors.

“I think a big reason for us losing three of four from them is just playing so early on,” Kusler said. “That’s not really an excuse, but we didn’t have our full team at that point. We definitely weren’t playing very good baseball at that point, either. We feel really confident just knowing we’re playing a lot better baseball now than we were back at the beginning of the season, and that’s what you ask for.”

Kusler said defensive struggles and the lack of hits also contributed to the losses. On the flip side, the Smittys lone win was a 10-7 victory at home, and Kusler said that is when the offense began to hit its stride, finishing with 12 hits, despite eight errors on defense.

“That’s kind of when our bats started to really come alive,” Kusler said. “Offensively, we were really successful that game. It really kind of made up for us being really bad defensively.”

Watertown brings a potent offense and pitching game to the diamond, and Kusler noted that his team will need to be prepared for a multifaceted opponent.

“They’ll be a very good offensive team, so we’re really going to have to make plays defensively behind our pitchers,” Kusler said. “On the mound, too, they’ve got one guy that will likely be pitching for them (tonight) who throws with some pretty high velocity, and so our guys just got to be prepared for seeing a guy that throws a little bit harder.”

Kusler also said his team needs to expect Watertown to be on the offensive and to be prepared for a battle.

“Our guys just have to be at the plate expecting to get strikes, expecting to get pitches to hit, because they’re not really a team that’s going to walk a ton of guys. They’re going to come right at us and attack our hitters, so we’ve just got to be prepared for that.”

With a state tournament berth on the line, Kusler says the biggest adjustments will need to come on defense for the Smittys.

“I think just being a little more solid defensively, just making plays behind our pitcher, because if you give a team like Watertown extra bases, extra outs to deal with, then they’re going to make you pay,” Kusler said. “So, I think that’s got to be the main focus. They’re a good enough hitting team where they’re going to put some pressure on us. They’re going to put a lot of balls in play, and we’ve just got to be solid defensively and play catch.”

One of the biggest improvements for the Smittys this season has been at the plate, where a lack of depth has improved into a deep and potent offensive lineup. Kusler said the team is more confident offensively.

“I think the one through nine in our lineup right now are really confident with anybody up at the plate, and I think our guys are all confident in themselves, too, right now,” Kusler said. “I think that’s something we lacked a little bit toward the beginning of the year.”

Defensively, Kusler says the team has been better at doing the little things well.

“From a defensive standpoint, I think we have gotten better defensively in terms of making routine plays and playing catch,” Kusler said. “And then on the mound, our pitchers have just gotten better and better as the year has gone on just attacking hitters, filling up the zone, throwing multiple pitches for strikes. So, we’ve really come a long way in every aspect of the game, and I think it’s just prepared us really well for these playoffs.”

Kusler said it all comes down to the approach the Smittys take when entering the playoffs this evening.

“It’s just going to be a battle, and we know their lineup is capable of producing a lot of runs, so we’ve just got to match that and we’ve got to stick to our approach offensively and do what we’ve basically done all season and put pressure on teams the way that we have,” Kusler said. “We’ve faced a lot of good arms throughout the season. We’ve faced a lot of good teams throughout the season, and we’ve had success against those teams, so really this should be no different. We shouldn’t approach it as anything bigger than just another game and just go out and compete like we have been, then I think we’ll be alright.”