Losing always hurts. It's supposed to.
The last loss, when there's no more baseball to be played, hurts the most.
Xavier University's baseball team needed two wins on Sunday at Prasco Park.
The Musketeers only got one.
Xavier beat Connecticut 5-4 Sunday afternoon to force a second game in the evening against the Huskies to decide the Big East Conference Tournament champion and the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.
After the second game, a 10-6 loss, the Musketeers walked as a group into the outfield and circled up for the last time.
More:'I think about her every game.' Xavier's baseball coach reflects on mom and impact of a cause
"It sucks in the moment. It will suck tomorrow and it will suck weeks from now, but it doesn't take away how proud I am of our guys for showing up and competing and laying it on the line and that's what I told them," said Xavier head coach Billy O'Conner. "It's easy to not care. It's easy to not invest. It's easy to act like it doesn't matter. But when it matters to you and things don't go your way it hurts.
"Our guys competed like crazy all week, all year. It's been a crazy 15 months for what these kids have gone through, and everybody obviously, but from what they're used to for fall workouts and winter practices, for spring, for travel, for road protocols, everything.
"And they just kept doing whatever we asked them and the final thing we asked them was to come out here and compete like crazy in the conference tournament and they did that every single pitch this weekend."
The Musketeers lost their first game Thursday in the Big East Tournament, then proceeded to win three straight elimination games to set up a decisive winner-take-all game on Sunday night, and even when the last game got away from them, down 10-3 entering the ninth inning, Xavier still didn't quit. They fought for three more runs and tried to claw their way back into the game.
More:Xavier basketball hires Orlando Magic strength coach Chase Campbell
"That's what I love about our guys, they fight until the end," said O'Conner. "You look at the big picture, on Thursday we lose and we gotta come all the way through the losers bracket to give ourselves an opportunity to win this thing and we fought like crazy and then we get to the championship and we fight like crazy in game one today and hang on and win, and get to the championship game and it doesn't go our way, we're down seven in the last inning and our guys still keep fighting. That's what makes me so proud about who they are. There's no give-up in that crew. You control what you can control and you can always control your effort and you control the way you compete. That's what those guys did today. Could we have executed a little better today? Sure. Could we have thrown a few more strikes? Sure. But man, can't ever fault the way our guys competed this week."
There's not a lot to say when a season ends in disappointment. Under the lights Sunday night out in right field is the last time that team will be together on a baseball field. Many will come back next season, some will graduate and play professionally. Some may never play baseball again.
"I just told them I love them," O'Conner said with tears in his eyes. "It's tough at the end of the year every year. These are guys you've been around for four and some guys five and six years. These kids, they're not just players in the program, they're like my brother, they're my friends. To have to part ways with those guys in the sense of coaching them and them being a player, our relationship doesn't end, but it's tough. You put in so many hours and so much work and it's a family. When you break up that family it hurts. All you can tell them is that you love them and mean it sincerely."
More:Xavier tennis standout Ahmeir Kyle made school history this season
Fifteen months ago, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the college baseball season. It was Nate Monastra's senior year. He decided to come back this season as a fifth-year senior for one last ride.
He's glad he did.
"As soon as I made the decision I didn't regret it for a second," Monastra said. "These are my brothers here. I loved all the new guys we had this year and I loved getting another year with all my old teammates. It was awesome. It didn't end the way we wanted but I wouldn't trade this last season for anything."
On the last day of Monastra's Xavier baseball career, he hit two home runs. The first came in Sunday afternoon's win. The second came Sunday night in the ninth inning in the last at-bat of his Xavier career.
"Nate's an incredible person. He's an incredible student, an incredible leader," O'Conner said of his catcher. "He embodies what this program should be about, what any program should be about. It kills me that we aren't going to end this thing going to the NCAA Tournament his second senior year but he came back and I'm so glad we got to experience everything we got to experience this year together."
It's easy to fall in love with playing a sport. It's easier to fall in love with being a part of a team.
"It's so much more than just baseball with these guys," said Monastra.
Source link
