Early ending for Terriers

As suddenly as St. Francis Prep morphed from underachievers to overachievers, from a fifth-place outfit to an inspiring late-season story, their downfall was even quicker.
In a span of less than 24 hours, their spring ended with a thud.
Last Thursday, the Terriers were riding high, eight straight wins to their credit, dreams of back-to-back city championships no longer an illusion.
All it took was a few loose innings to end those aspirations. The final two frames against Xaverian, when the Terriers were bludgeoned 11-2, saw them outscored 9-2 in the final two innings, and the rocky first two stanzas against Regis last Friday at St. John’s University when emergency starter Vincent Reda couldn’t find the plate, digging an early three-run hole for his teammates.
They could not burrow out of it, falling short, 5-2, in the double elimination tournament. Junior Patrick Hornek was gutsy in relief, pitching on short rest, going six innings and allowing just two runs. The lineup kept on coming in the late stages, loading the bases in each of the last two innings.
“That’s what I love about this team - seventh inning, two outs, you still got everybody cheering; nobody gave up,” senior ace AJ Boardman said.
Yet it was not enough to make up for an inability to move runners over and deliver clutch hits, the Terriers’ greatest strength during the stretch run. They wasted leadoff hits in the first and third, stranded two more in the fourth, left the bases loaded in the sixth and two more in the seventh.
“If we could’ve gotten a big hit, I believe we would’ve won this game,” senior shortstop Lucas Romeo said. “Sometimes they don’t fall where you want.”
When it was over, after junior infielder Nick Copelli whiffed with two runners on, many of the Terriers let their emotions out, particularly the seniors who had played alongside one another since they were sophomores. The primary foursome - second baseman Dennis Nover, Romeo, Boardman and third baseman and cleanup hitter Sebastian Grazziani - were important pieces on last year’s city championship team, the first at the Fresh Meadows schools since 1995.
Some cried, others angrily tossed equipment, many lingered in the dugout, staring blankly. The prom was waiting, but that, Romeo said, was the furthest thing from their minds.
“I don’t want my high school career to be over,” Romeo said, wiping tears from each eye. “It’s the best four years of my life. It’s unfortunate it had to end like this.”
Boardman put the season-ending defeat in perspective afterward. The pain, he said, came from their hopes of repeating as champions, to leave the way the previous seniors did, and knowing they will not play together anymore. But, he added, it was just a game, just a loss. There is more baseball to play.
The juniors will return, and use this season of experience as a guide. The seniors will move on to college, where they will hopefully apply the lessons they learned together, on the field and off it.
“I’m very proud of them,” St. Francis Coach Brother Robert Kent said. “They did the best they could. It just wasn’t in the cards.”