LEWISTON — After winning two out of three games against Rider over the weekend of May 1, Niagara sat in first place in the MAAC and appeared to be on its way to winning its first regular-season MAAC title.
It remained in a tie for first heading into its last series of the season against Mount St. Mary’s.
All it had to do to finish as a top two-seed was win two of three games in the series. The Purple Eagles needed some help from St. Peter’s in their series against Rider to win the conference regular season title outright.
But two wins from Niagara meant it would be a top-two seed in the MAAC tournament for the second time in three seasons.
However, that is not the way it went and Niagara lost two out of its last three games of the regular season including a 12-5 loss in the season finale to Mount St. Mary’s, Friday.
The loss could have significant consequences on Niagara, which dropped to 26-17-1 overall and 20-10 in the MAAC.
The loss eliminates Niagara from being the top seed and depending on results below them, the Purple Eagles could drop to the No. 3 seed and lose a first-round bye.
Despite the loss and no longer being the top seed in the MAAC tournament, the players and coaches are not concerned. They are ready to look ahead to fixing the mistakes of this weekend’s series.
“(It is) not frustrating at all. We’re just going to go to the tournament,” Niagara head coach Matt Spatafora said. “(We are) one of the six teams that compete to win a championship and that’s the way it is.”
As it headed into the series finale against the Mountaineers, Niagara was trying to stick to its game plan and not worry about the fact that the team held its postseason hopes in its hands. The Purple Eagles were instead worrying about trying to get the win regardless of any postseason implications and honoring their eight seniors.
“The biggest thing with us is we try to keep things simple, really just try to play the game,” Niagara senior outfielder Elijha Hammill said. “It’s one game after another. Whatever happens, happens, at the end of the day, we can only control pitch by pitch. So really just kept it simple, felt excited. It was senior day, vibes were up, sun was out.”
Now Niagara has to spend what would have been a carefree Saturday at graduation instead stressing over which seed the Purple Eagles will get in the conference tournament starting on May 20.
Niagara is waiting to see how both Fairfield and Merrimack do in its games on Saturday to see whether it is the No. 2 seed or the No. 3 seed. If Merrimack, who headed into the weekend with a 17-10 conference record, sweeps its last two games of the season, the Warriors are the No. 2 seed and Niagara falls to the No. 3 seed because Merrimack won two out of three games against Niagara over the weekend of March 7.
Before the conference tournament, Niagara has two days off to celebrate graduation and be with its families before the team gets back to work Monday preparing to go down to Wappingers Falls.
While the team will be tracking how the Stags and the Warriors do, the group will not be watching any of the games together in a big group as they celebrate the end of the school year.
Whatever seed the Purple Eagles wind up being though it does not change how they feel about themselves or their chances at the conference tournament.
“Especially a day like today, we knew we could have probably done more, maybe clean some stuff up,” Hammill said. “But at the end of the day, if we’re second or third, it just fuels us. We understand we’re the best team in the MAAC. So we’re just gonna do our part and just dominate one way or another.”