THIS IS PROBABLY not the time to tell the Emporia State University baseball Hornets that they did a great job this season. On Saturday, the Hornets lost the national championship to Lynn, 2-1.
For the team, that causes a pain that cannot be soothed away by a whirlpool bath or analgesic balm. Only time heals that sort of injury.
But, in time, perhaps the players will come to know what their fans already know — that the Hornets played a great season, full of plays that would have sent a major-league crowd wild in the stands. They played hard and they played smart.
Emporia could not have been prouder of this team if Saturday’s score had been reversed.
Lynn is the 2009 national champion, but the 2009 Hornets will always be champions to the fans who followed the season. Their performance in the NCAA Division II World Series — undefeated until the final game — gives them a place in the school record books and a place of honor among the college baseball teams of Kansas.
But good athletes take the game seriously and defeat in a championship game can seem like the end of the world. It will be understandable if some of the Hornets have a hard time looking at themselves in the mirror for a while.
If they need any reassurance, they only have to look in the eyes of their fans. There are no recriminations there — only pride and respect.
The Hornets were and are a great team, and they had a season to remember.
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