The Saint John Alpines will try again next year to clinch the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League title.
Saint John fell to the Charlottetown Islanders 2-0 in game seven of the league semifinal on Thursday night.
Terre Hunter said while it is always disappointing not to win, there is no shame in losing to Charlottetown.
“I’ve been around this game quite a while and I’ve never seen anything like this series,” Hunter said in a phone interview.
“It was a battle back and forth. Every game was well played. Very solid defence from both teams, outstanding pitching. Not a lot of hitting, but there certainly were some timely hits.”
Saint John scored 20 runs over the seven-game series while Charlottetown recorded 21 runs. Four of the games were decided by a single run.
Going into the semifinals, Hunter said he expected it would be a tight series with a lot of back and forth between the teams.
“They have two particularly good pitchers and we knew that we would have to battle hard to have any success against them,” he said.
Charlottetown has advanced to the best-of-seven league final against the Moncton Fisher Cats, who defeated Chatham in six games in the semifinals.
The Islanders are expected to face a bit of a challenge against the Fisher Cats, who Hunter describes as a “good hitting team.”
“Charlottetown will have to continue to be strong on the defence to defend against the Moncton team,” he said.
Hunter said he expects it to be a “fairly close” series lasting either six or seven games.
Charlottetown opened the series Sunday night with a 2-1 victory. Game two is set for Monday night in Charlottetown.
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