Pleasantville - It wouldn't be unfair to say in that in the past two decades that the Southampton baseball team was ordinarily ordinary, sometimes less. Its squads hadn't reached the playoffs in more than a decade. A county championship had escaped its grasp every year since 1978. All that changed this year. For the past month, it made history on nearly a weekly basis, from postseason no-hitters to the school's first Long Island title ever.

The Mariners' Brandon Alvarado closed the book on Dobbs Ferry by coming on in relief in the sixth inning.

In one inning, as if oft the case however, the dream of hanging a state championship banner unraveled. During the sixth inning of Wednesday's 5-1 loss to Section I champ Dobbs Ferry in the NYSPHSAA Southeast Regional at Pace University, the Mariners weren't their sound selves, committing three errors and allowing the Eagles to bust open a tie ballgame. A modest threat in the Southampton seventh eventually went by the wayside and the Eagles were on to the final four where they will face Section VII winner Beekmantown. As for the Mariners, their dream season was over but not without highlights for their memory bank.

"What a thrilling ride this season was," Birdsall said, "To win the first playoff game in 11 years, go on a little bit of a streak there and take the counties, that was great. And then to come back and take Long Island was terrific. The season can only be looked at in a positive light. I know those guys will probably take a few days before they realize what they accomplished."

The Mariners finished their season 20-8, with the loss to Dobbs Ferry representing the first such result at the hands of a Class B school all season. They celebrated their first playoff appearance since 1998 but it was clear that they were far more ambitious. Southampton beat up Center Moriches and Southold to grab a county title for the first time since 1978 and days later right-hander Chris Pike threw a no-hitter in the B-C match-up against Pierson. On Monday, the Mariners beat Wheatley 2-1 to advance to the round of eight where it met Dobbs Ferry. The reception at the school on Wednesday as well as in the stands, where upward of 100 fans rooted on Southampton, motivated the team and great deal, said Birdsall.

After leading the Mariners to the county and Long Island championships, second baseman Andrew Shimkus will attend the University of Tampa.

"We had a sendoff today at the school that just sent chills up their spines," he said. "To march up the hall and everyone's there, that was great. We had a great fan base. What we did might send waves throughout the school and maybe it will encourage these kids to win in every sport. I hope it's contagious like that."

Southampton's joy from drawing even in the top of the sixth inning was short-lived. The first four batters in the Eagle seventh reached base and scored, although only clean-up hitter Tim Gardner reached by way of a hit. Gardner led off with a single and took second when the throw off a fielded bunt sailed awry at second. On the next play, Joe Bern hit a grounder wide of Johnson at third, and Pike, hoping to pick off the lead runner at home, instead threw wide of catcher Jeb Schmidt, allowing Gardner to score. A suicide squeeze turned into another run for Dobbs Ferry, and another single punctuated a four-run inning.

"It was like the first inning at Islip all over again," Birdsall said, referring to the six-run sixth in last week's Small Schools Championship against the Bucs. "It was ugly. We weren't settling down and making plays and those guys made them. I think the worst thing is that we beat ourselves. They didn't beat us. It would be better if we went out because we were defeated, not because we gave it to them."

Like his teammate Zach Avalos, who induced 13 groundouts in the Section I/IX regional semifinal win over Pine Plains, Sean LaFaye was effective yet not overpowering. His pitches were just off-center on the Southampton bats all night, and the Mariners had trouble mounting a rally. Their first eight hitters grounded out and the ninth closed out the third inning by popping to second. It wasn't until junior shortstop Chris Pike singled with two outs in the fourth that Southampton had so much as a baserunner. LaFaye fanned just one hitter yet he earned his 21 outs just the same.

Ricky Wesnofske, a spot pitcher for Southampton this season, is expected to take on a larger role next spring.

"We were hitting him; we just were hitting to where they were and not where they weren't," Birdsall said. "Sometimes the thing falls and sometimes it doesn't. It seems like if we could have gotten a couple of those balls to drop or get through the holes, it could have been a lot different."

The only blemish to LaFaye's line came in the sixth when Sean Johnson led off with a single and took second on a passed ball. Two batters later, Andrew Shimkus dropped a base hit into shallow center field, which allowed Johnson to score from second to tie the game. LaFaye escaped further damage by retiring Wesnofske and Pike. All told, the Eagles right-hander allowed just four hits and kept the Mariners uncomfortable throughout.

Southampton's Alex Antilety nearly matched his opposite on the mound. The senior went 5 2/3 innings, giving up two earned runs while striking out eight. Antilety's gem against Southold/Greenport had clinched the county title but the sixth-inning miscues upstaged his efforts. He's one of six seniors who played their final game as a Mariner on Wednesday, joining Andrew Shimkus, Brandon Alvarado, Dan Fitzgerald, Niall Wood and C.J. Knoebel. Birdsall raved about the senior class that set the tone for Southampton in the off-season and carried that work ethic into the spring.

"I hope when I have kids that they're all just like these guys," Birdsall said. "That's how highly I think of them."