TRAVERSE CITY-The disappointment and shock hung heavy in the air as the Rogers City softball team watched Inland Lakes players mob each other at home plate in celebration.

Despite all its best efforts, despite a valiant comeback attempt, there was Inland Lakes celebrating a Division 4 softball quarterfinal victory on Tuesday, having held off the Hurons for an 8-7 win.

Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

Wasn’t Inland Lakes pitcher Cloe Mallory laboring through the last few innings while the Hurons heated up at the plate?

Weren’t the Hurons the team with all the momentum?

For awhile it certainly looked like it might turn out differently. After all, the Hurons’ motto this season was “If we’re doing it, we’re doing it” and what they were doing was making an improbable comeback and refusing to give up, even in the final inning.

In the fifth inning, an 8-0 deficit didn’t seem impossible, but it did seem difficult. Then Hannah Fleming got new life at the plate and stroked a single to center field; Taylor Fleming followed with an RBI double and then Mallory had trouble keeping the ball down and Hannah Dittmar, Amanda Wirgau and Ally Streich were all hit by pitches.

“We started to putting a little pressure on them and I think the key is, you’ve got to put the ball in play and put runners on base. We put some pressure on them and made some things happen,” Rogers City coach Karl Grambau said. “That’s softball, it’s never over til it’s over and I’m really proud of our girls.”

Just like that the bases were loaded and the score changed from 8-0 to 8-6 after a near meltdown by the Bulldogs. This was a classic Rogers City scenario, charging back with a force after taking some early lumps. After Sarah Meredith blasted a solo shot to left field in the sixth inning and was mobbed by her teammates at home plate, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Hurons won.

But with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, reality caught up to the Hurons. A base-running error on a fly ball kept the bases loaded with two outs and Meredith bounced out to the pitcher to end the game. Just like that the Hurons, who had been gathering momentum and speeding toward the light at the end of the tunnel, smashed into a brick wall, their playoff dreams dashed for another season.

It was a game that ultimately lived up to its billing; a back-and-fourth battle between two of the top teams in Division 4 and depending on how you look at it, the game could be considered an Inland Lakes survival more than a Rogers City loss. Every Rogers City player who saw playing time on Tuesday did something important, whether it was coming up with a key hit or making a big defensive play.

But losses like this are always tough to take, especially when you know you’re a good team. It serves as a harsh reminder of the win-or-go home nature of the postseason and makes teams appreciate just how much effort it takes to get to a quarterfinal.

“This stings a little bit right now and we feel sad, but when we look back at the whole season, we’re going to feel pretty proud of ourselves,” Grambau said. “We’ve got a conference championship, a district championship and a regional championship. There’s a lot of teams that would love to have something like that.”

Grambau is absolutely right and if things go well next season, there’s a good chance Rogers City and Inland Lakes could square off again for Round 3 in next year’s quarterfinal. But in the meantime Grambau is also correct that the Hurons have much to be proud of this season.

The Hurons put together a 29-win season with a freshman pitcher and a lineup where five of the first six batters were underclassmen. This is a team with good chemistry, a team that has fun and a team that doesn’t get rattled when the pressure mounts. Grambau and his assistants did a fantastic job building up the team this season and the team responded in kind, going through long practices with no complaints and making adjustments they needed to make to catch fire when it counted most in the playoffs.

Rogers City won a title in the always competitive North Star League and won a district title for the fifth year in a row. Though they were pushed in two games, they also won a regional title, making up for last year’s loss in the regional final.

The Hurons will certainly miss their three seniors, Megan Brege, Streich and Meredith, the last active player from Rogers City’s 2014 state championship team and the team’s all around leader. But the future looks bright too. The talent pool running through Rogers City in the last five or six years has been amazing and the Hurons will have plenty of talented players returning next season, along with some new faces.

The sun has set on Rogers City’s season, but when the sun rises on the 2017 season, you can bet the Hurons will be raring to go; ready to have fun, ready to compete and ready to win.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.