By Ray Beasley |Staff Writer|
Coyotes are finding it hard to remember their amazing season and past successes with the recent loss to Sonoma State.
With such high hopes of success the struggling Coyotes struggle to remain positive in the wake of such a disappointing end to their beloved season.
“At the start of the year our goal was to win the last game of the season and since we fell short it is a let down,” said starting catcher Paul Eshleman.
It was this mindset of not coming home until the final game of the season was won that kept the Coyotes fighting until the very end.
The Coyotes lost in dramatic fashion as their star closer, Josh Pond, was called for a balk which allowed the runner on third base to walk home in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving Sonoma State a 3–2 victory.
This happened right after the Coyotes made an improbable comeback, as catcher Eshleman, tripled in a run in the top half of the ninth inning to give the Coyotes a 2–1 lead.
It proved to not be enough, however. With such high standards and their willingness to strive for near perfection. It is difficult to stay mentally focused on next year or their professional futures.
“I am proud of how we finished, fighting until the end. It’s the result I am not happy about. We know that we are a better team than what we ended at and it is a let down that we were not able to live up to the standards that we had put upon ourselves,” said Eshleman.
Oftentimes fans and followers of sports teams do not recognize the mental struggles the players deal with, never understanding that the players take a loss far harder then they could ever imagine.
This game is a major part of their lives. It is what they invest the majority of their time to perfect. “Some of the guys will be at the baseball field eight or more hours on game day,” said head coach Don Parnell.
Many fans are never privy to the behind-the-scenes effort they give for the simple hope of achieving victory; victory for themselves, the team and their school’s pride.
It is this level of determination that the Coyotes need to stay competitive in the relentless world of baseball. Every player, on both sides of the field, works to achieve the same goal and the first team to let up is the first team to admit defeat.
It is, in a sense, a cruel reality. “Baseball is a weird sport in that even if you are ahead late in the game you can never let up, and I feel that we let up for just a split second and when we did, the game was over and we were not on the winning side,” said Eshleman.
The game of baseball allows no room for complacency and demands nothing less then absolute effort until the final pitch is thrown.
The Coyotes will now have to learn how to pick up the pieces of their season, taking with them what they have learned, the ups and the downs.