CONCORD — Perhaps it was fitting that as John Stark head coach Dennis Pelletier started to talk about his team’s season-ending 10-2 loss to Bow on Wednesday night, a fog descended over Memorial Field.

For a team that had lost just once all season, Wednesday was as hazy as the No. 1 Generals (17-2) had looked all year. And with their championship aspirations hanging in the balance, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

“It’s like you’re watching a car crash happen in slow motion, and you want to go out there and stop it,” Pelletier said after the D-II semifinal loss. “You’re like, ‘Come on! Come on!’ But we just couldn’t get it.”

John Stark entered the game relatively at ease with its pitching situation. Junior Chase Philibotte, a stalwart on the mound all season, would get the start; Anthony Paolicelli — last week named D-II’s Player of the Year — lurked in the bullpen. Things didn’t go as planned.

No. 4 Bow (15-5) worked Philibotte’s pitch count north of 80 in just four-plus innings of work. Pelletier consequently had to summon Paolicelli to the mound sooner than he’d hoped; his left-hander had just thrown over 120 pitches in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Lebanon. But as Pelletier said, when you have the Player of the Year on your team, you use him. Tied 2-2 in the top of the fifth with Philibotte having just walked the leadoff hitter, he felt it was the right decision.

“That’s what we went (with), and it didn’t work out,” he said.

Paolicelli pitched uncharacteristically. Of the 58 pitches he threw, just 24 were strikes. He walked six, struck out just two and allowed five runs over two innings of work. By the time he left the game, the Generals trailed 8-2.

John Stark had its chances, namely in the bottom of the fifth when, still trailing by just two with the bases loaded and two outs, Aidan Williams hit an absolute missile. The only problem? It was hit right at pitcher Sean Guerrette who improbably stabbed at it and had the ball stick in his glove to extinguish the Generals’ threat.

As Pelletier knows as well as anyone, sometimes in baseball, the day just doesn’t go the way you want it to. Wednesday was that day for his team, a group that dominated all season long and had as good a chance as anyone in Division II at hoisting the state championship plaque on Saturday. 

“I couldn’t be more proud of them. We have four seniors that are graduating that have been great role models for these kids to build us for the future, and we’re going to be back again next year,” Pelletier said. “There’s definitely a sting right now. A lot of these are juniors and sophomores, they’re gonna play together all summer and keep that rolling into that aspect of staying together, play well.

“We have that advantage over a lot of Division II teams. A lot of kids when you get to the summertime, go scatter in all different travel programs; our boys stay together, and they play Legion, and that really helps us out in terms of building this program because like we talked about earlier this year, we have under 600 kids at our school, but we keep turning out good ballplayers because they love the sport and they love playing together. That’s crucial for us.”

Still, for seniors Paolicelli, Hunter Keim, Deltyn Williams and Seth Marquardt, there are no more chances at the high school level. This was it.

“I’ve never seen a group of kids bond like this group,” Pelletier said. “I know you probably hear coaches say stuff like that all the time, but this is incredible because over the years, I’ve seen less and less bonding of athletes and groups. It’s kind of a ‘travel mentality,’ we’re trying to showcase kids here and there, and it’s never been this way with this group; it’s just amazing. It’s a great testament to Hunter and Anthony who have been the captains for two years now. Their leadership has pointed these kids in the right direction on that end of it.”

Eric Rynston-Lobel can be reached at erynstonlobel@cmonitor.com.