“We showed grit in the last inning, gave ourselves a chance,” John Marshall head coach Mark Cisar said after his Monarchs’ season-ending loss. “We put the tying run on base. Had some good at-bats in that last inning, did some nice things.

“We’ve struggled to score all year long and it continued again today. We decided to play a little bit in the last two innings, we locked in and ended up making it a ballgame, but missed opportunities is the name of the game and we missed some serious opportunities at the beginning of this one.”

Ducks left on the pond came home to roost on Wednesday, which saw John Marshall put up a furious fight in the seventh inning, entering the final frame down 5-1. It was a bushel of runners left on-base that played as big a role as anything about the outcome though.

“We left eight guys on base over the first three innings,” Cisar said. “We left the bases loaded, we didn’t put the ball in play a couple times with one out or two outs, we couldn’t push a run across there early, we struggled. [Landon] Marple threw excellently for [Buckhannon-Upshur].”

Coming out of a lengthy lightning delay in the fourth inning, The Monarchs found themselves down 5-0 heading into the sixth. With one out and runners on second and third, a single to right by Jesse McDowell scored Jacob Cisar from third, but the throw in from the outfield was true and the second runner was tagged out at home plate.

“That was my fault, getting a guy thrown out in the sixth, should’ve held him up,” Cisar explained. “We’re down four runs, and you send a guy and he gets thrown out at home plate, just a bad job by me on that.”

In the bottom of the seventh, John Marshall’s bid to tie the ballgame began with a walk and a single to put runners on the corners.

Kayden Knapp stepped up to the plate and bashed a ball that, had it traveled a foot further, would’ve left the park in right-center. As it was though, the shot ended as a one-run double putting runners on second and third with nobody out.

Mason Markonich scored on a passed ball to make it a 5-3 game, and another walk had runners once again on the corners with no outs on the scoreboard.

A sacrifice fly allowed Knapp to score and bring the winning run up to bat for John Marshall with one out and the tying run at first base.

A comebacker to BU reliever Weldon Zirkle made two outs for the Bucs. The winning run reached base after a catcher’s interference call, but Zirkle got a called strike three to end the contest.

Knapp, Cisar and McDowell each had RBI for John Marshall. Kain Ankrom pitched the final 3.2 innings, allowing no runs, two hits and no walks down the stretch to allow his team to work back into the game on offense.

“We had to go to the bullpen and Kain Ankrom threw great for us,” Cisar said. “Then we battled back a little bit, gave ourselves a chance there.”

John Marshall graduates a group of four seniors- Tommy Clegg, Hunter Coulter, Brooks Harrison and Hayden Gaiser.

“We’re losing four seniors, three of those guys have been here all four years in the program. It’s tough to lose them all,” Cisar said. “Anytime you talk at the end of the game- I told the guys, I hate giving this speech, where it’s over. But the guys contributed to the program and they’re going to be very successful in life. All four seniors are great young men and they’re going to do positive things in life. Tough for them, tough not to come back and do it again tomorrow, but that’s how it works, there’s a winner and a loser and today we were on the bottom half of that.”

Buckhannon-Upshur makes yet another long trip up north on Thursday for a game against Wheeling Park, who defeated them 1-0 on Tuesday.