And now it is done. There was no more magic left in the Western Nevada Community College baseball team's magical season.
The Wildcats were eliminated from the Scenic West Conference postseason tournament on Friday, losing to Dixie State 4-0 and then to Southern Idaho 4-3 on Friday at John L. Harvey Field.
"You can only have so many miracle comebacks in the bag," WNCC coach D.J. Whittemore said.
Southern Idaho and Dixie State will play for the tournament title at noon today. Southern Idaho must beat the Rebels at noon to force another game for the crown at 3 p.m.
The Wildcats ran into two tough pitchers in Dixie State's Chris Reap and Southern Idaho's Adam Urnberg.
Reap scattered five hits and four walks for the complete-game shutout. It was his second complete game shutout against WNCC this season as earlier in the year he shut out the Wildcats over 10 innings for a win.
Reap barely throws in the low 80s, but he kept WNCC off balance with off speed pitches.
"You've definitely got to give credit to Chris Reap," Whittemore said. "He's the only guy in America getting people out throwing 82 miles an hour."
Urnberg was a far cry from the pitcher last week who didn't have his best stuff in a 5-1 loss against the Wildcats. But on Friday he was able to shut down WNCC until the eighth inning when the Wildcats looked to be on the verge of one more miracle comeback.
Down 4-1, Taylor Meiras reached on an error and Kyle Bondurant and Brett Mosher walked to load the bases. Tyson Jaquez chased Urnberg with an RBI single that made it 4-2.
Jordan Latham came on and walked Pat Grennan to force in a run, making it 4-3. Then came a rematch from the exact same situation last week between Brad Carlsen and Latham.
In last week's matchup with the bases loaded, Carlsen was able to hit a 2-run single to give the Wildcats a 4-3 win and the conference regular season title.
But this time Latham won the battle as he got Carlsen to fly out to end the inning. Latham went on to pitch a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up the save. Urnberg was able to pitch into the eighth after throwing four innings on Thursday.
Ryan Iodence didn't allow a run and struck out three over the last two innings for WNCC. "I was extremely proud of the way we battled," Whittemore said.
Cole Rohrbough struggled with his control against Dixie as he walked two in the second, leading to three runs. Tim Mott had a two-run single during the rally.
Rohrbough gave way to Dan Grubbs, who uncorked a wild pitch to give Dixie runners at second and third. The third run scored on a groundout, but Grubbs got the last out without any more damage.
Sauer replace Grubbs in the third and allowed Alex Wolfe's RBI double that made it 4-0. But Sauer held Dixie in check from there over the last seven innings.
"Stephen Sauer was excellent out of the bullpen," Whittemore said. "That was terrific."
But WNCC couldn't crack through against Reap. The Wildcats had a chance to score in the second when Thomas Miller and Pat Grennan led off with back-to-back singles to give WNCC runners at first and second with no outs. But Reap got two strikeouts and a groundout to end the threat.
After issuing a walk to Bondurant in the third, Reap went on to retire 12 straight before allowing Grennan's double in the seventh. WNCC's last chance to score came in the ninth when Miller walked, Grennan singled and Douglas High's Chad Walling walked to load the bases, bringing Taylor Meiras up as the tying run.
But Meiras, who had singled in his last at bat, grounded out to end the game. Grennan had three hits to lead WNCC.
Despite the disappointing finish on Friday, it was still a suprisingly successful year for WNCC, which finished at 37-18 and won the Scenic West regular season title. Whittemore said his team was able to accomplish all five of its goals which were:
Buiding character; doing well academically; having fun; building relationships; and winning a championship.
SOUTHERN IDAHO 1,
SALT LAKE 0
Southern Idaho was finally able to break through in the bottom of the ninth to break up a pitcher's duel between Zak Privett and James Wallace and Salt Lake's Geoffrey Wolfgramm.
Privett went seven innings and Wallace pitched the last two innings for the win. Kyle Resser led off the ninth with a single, chasing Wolfgramm. Cody Hansen came in and was the victim of back-to-back sacrifice bunts in which throws into the runners allowed them to reach first on errors.
Ken Fuglerud reached on an error on his sacrifice bunt and then Nick Gumeson reached reached on an error on a sacrifice bunt to load the bases. Jordan Daley followed with the game-winning hit to left.
Tournament notes: Community College of Southern Nevada may have been eliminated from the tournament after just two games, but not all was lost for the Coyotes. CCSN's Nick Sansone has signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Nevada.
•Contact Charles Whisnand at cwhisnand@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1214