It wasn’t the ending Stony Wine had hoped for, but he’ll take it.
Lenoir Community College was eliminated from the NJCAA Division II Region X tournament Monday night, but not before winning four consecutive games over three days to make some noise in the eight-team event.
When it was all said and done the only two teams left standing were the sixth-seeded Lancers and No. 2 Brunswick Community College. The Dolphins got the best of LCC, 9-5, in the late game on Monday.
Had the Lancers won the teams would have played a winner-takes-all game on Tuesday. But even in defeat, Wine could see the silver lining.
“We did something that a lot of people didn’t think we could do — win that many games after losing the first one,” the ninth-year coach said. “We obviously wanted to win, but it gives us something to build on for the future.”
The streak of four wins in three days — one on Saturday, two on Sunday and one Monday afternoon — came on the heels of the lowest point of the season for LCC. The team opened the tournament with a 2-1 loss to Pasco-Hernando C.C. (Fla.) and fell for the 10th time in its last 13 games.
Instead of folding, the Lancers came together — knowing they couldn’t lose again — and ran off a string of wins that showed they weren’t finished and were better than their seed suggested.
LCC knocked Rockingham C.C. from the tournament with a 9-5 win on Saturday, then grabbed a pair of wins on Mother’s Day with a 4-1 victory over Patrick Henry C.C. and an 8-4 win over Pasco-Hernando later that evening. On Monday the Lancers knocked top-seeded and 10th-ranked Catawba Valley C.C. from the tournament with an 8-5 win to emerge from the loser’s bracket to the championship.
But playing five nine-inning games in a four-day span took their toll, and in the end LCC simply ran out of gas.
“A hit here or there and we could still be playing,” Wine said, “but we just didn’t have much left in the tank.”
More than half of LCC’s 33 listed players are expected to be back next season, Wine said, giving him hope for 2014.
The 20 who are set to return got a taste of what “playing like there’s no tomorrow” is like, and hopes that next year the nearly two dozen returners will play with that attitude every game for an entire year.
While the team’s ultimate goal of winning the region tournament and advancing to the junior college world series didn’t come to fruition, Wine feels a seed was planted on what it takes to make that happen in 2014.
“They got a taste of what it’s like to play with their backs to the wall, and they responded well,” he said. “It’s all mental, and that’s the approach we need to have every time we play.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.