Birmingham-Southern Eliminated from D-III World Series; School closed on May 31st

The magical postseason run by the Birmingham-Southern baseball team was destined to end in heartbreak, but it was even more heartbreaking than expected.

The Panthers suffered an 11-10 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater on Sunday in a Division III College World Series elimination game. The loss comes after the university closed last Friday due to financial problems.

“I don’t feel sadness right now and I mean it,” head coach Jay Weisberg, who took over the Birmingham-Southern program in 2007, said, via the Associated Press. “The way these guys have given me this year has been absolutely incredible. I love coaching and these guys made it so much fun.”

The Panthers had a 10-5 lead through six innings, but the bats went cold as things fell apart. Wisconsin-Whitewater scored two runs in the seventh, three in the eighth and got a homer from Sam Paden in the ninth.

Birmingham-Southern announced it was closing in March. Following the announcement, Weisberg encouraged his players to play loose, and they did just that. Weisberg gave an emotional response when asked what he hopes Birmingham-Southern’s final message will be.

“What a beautiful place it is … it was,” he said in an emotional moment. After composing himself, he continued:

“I know a lot of people are proud of their schools, and they should be,” he said. “We’re no different than a lot of people. But it’s such a beautiful place, physically. We have the best sunsets in the world. The message about Birmingham-Southern is that it changed lives. It was a place where people came as young men and women and left as grown men and women. What this nation has seen these past three weeks and the joy we’ve brought is exactly what this program is — it’s toughness, it’s championship baseball, I like the final Chapter for Birmingham-Southern could have gone off into the sunset and not many people outside of the alumni or the Birmingham community would have known about it, but now the nation knows that some pretty special things happened.

After the loss, Birmingham-Southern players stood along the third base line and tipped their caps to the fans in attendance. Then they walked off the field in small groups, hand in hand.