MAPLE GROVE, MINN. – The Aberdeen Smittys split a pair of American Legion games at the Gopher Classic on Saturday, falling to the Sartell-St Stephen Sabres 6-1 before rebounding with a 6-4 win over Hauptman O’Brien. The Smittys fell behind early against Sartell-St. Stephen. The Sabres got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Smittys coach Brandon Kusler attributed the loss to a few costly defensive miscues. “We made a couple mistakes defensively that cost us, and a good team like Sartell is going to make you pay for those mistakes and they did just that,” Kusler said. The score remained the same until the top of the fourth inning, when the Smittys got on the board with an RBI ground out by Brendan Livermont, scoring Casey Vining cutting the deficit to 2-1. However, that was the only run the Smittys could muster. Sartell-St. Stephen added one run in the bottom of the fourth, before closing the door on any hopes of a Smittys comeback with thre