The Ames Little Cyclones just didn’t have enough wind in their sails Saturday night. The baseball team saw its postseason hopes stall out at home as Des Moines Lincoln rode a big fifth inning to an 8-3 shocker in Class 4A Substate 2 first round action.

Coming in with a 25-14 record and riding high after blasting Lincoln 12-2 and 16-1 last month, the Little Cyclones looked ready to blow past the Railsplitters again. But instead of storming out of the gate, Ames was held to just one hit through three innings and found itself fighting an uphill battle after Lincoln cracked things open with a five-run fifth.

Starter Logan Bjerke kept Ames in it early, giving up just a single run over the first four frames. But a parade of Lincoln singles — plus a pair of costly doubles from Michael Estes and Nathan Granados — turned a 1-0 deficit into a sudden 7-0 hole.

Ames finally found a breeze in the sixth when Cullen Smith, Jackson Kepley and Max Martin knocked three straight singles and Reid Schmal roped a two-run double to trim the margin to 8-3. But just as quickly as the rally picked up, it fizzled — and the Little Cyclones went down quietly in the seventh to close a season that once promised so much more.

Bjerke’s early double and Schmal’s clutch knock highlighted a night when Ames stranded too many chances and couldn’t string together the same firepower that carried it through the Iowa Alliance Conference’s North Division.

Instead of blowing through to the next round, the Little Cyclones ran out of gust when they needed it most.