Plover Post 543's most successful season in several years came to an abrupt end in the American Legion State Tournament.
The Black Sox, who won its Regional two weeks ago and finished its season with a 34-11 record, dropped a dramatic 6-5 contest to Janesville.
After Plover jumped out to a 5-1 lead, Janesville rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to advance to the title game.
Janesville scored three in the seventh to pull within a run, 5-4. Then with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Janesville's Steve Sanfillippo came through with a game-tying RBI double. Sanfillippo then crossed the plate with the winning run on a Brian Sanderson single.
"That's baseball," Plover coach Kraig Terpstra said. "We played hard and they played hard and the margin of victory was one pitch."
Plover got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning on Chad Kingston's RBI single and then added three more in the fifth, highlighted by Kyle Bohm's two-run single.
Janesville made it 4-1 with a run in the sixth, but the Black Sox got the run back on Andy Cashin's run scoring single in the seventh.
The Black Sox had a chance for a run in the eighth, only to strand a runner at third. And Janesville's Ryan Callahan, who went the distance, retired the side 1-2-3 in the ninth.
"The same pitcher that we were having success against early really settled down," Terpstra said. "That was the key to the game. We really stopped scoring runs. We didn't put it away."
While Terpstra said the team's goal was to win a state title, he said the team had a lot to be proud of.
"Placing third in the state is pretty darn good," he said.
"I know that I was happy working with the kids and being with them everyday."