Birmingham-Southern loses in D-III WS on same day college shuttered - ESPN

EASTLAKE, Ohio — And the baseball team played on.

Birmingham-Southern rallied before losing its opening game in the Division III World Series 7-5 on Friday, the same day the private liberal arts school's doors officially closed after more than 160 years.

The Panthers fell behind 7-0 in the fifth inning to Salve Regina, but fought back in style befitting this odds-defying season.

They scored four runs in the seventh to pull within two and threatened in the eighth and ninth innings but couldn't come up with the clutch hit.

«Proud of our guys,» manager Jay Weisberg said. «The message in the locker room was I'm not upset. We got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but the way we played the last five innings is who we are, let's just keep moving on.»

The loss in the double-elimination tournament means Birmingham-Southern must win Saturday to keep its inspiring season going. The Panthers (32-15) will face the loser of Friday's game between Wisconsin-Whitewater and Randolph-Macon.

There's no margin for error, and that's OK with Weisberg, who didn't need to remind his team it has been in tougher spots.

«At the beginning of the season if someone tells you, 'I'm going to put you in a scenario where you're going to be in the college World Series competing for a national championship, but you're going to be 0-1,'» he said, «I think we'd all take that.»

The game was played against the backdrop of Birmingham-Southern's closure, a shutdown necessitated by the school being turned down for a $30 million loan that would have kept it going.

While the closing has been painful for many, the Panthers' run has brought some welcomed joy to the school's tight-knit community.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky as Birmingham-Southern took the field