A bittersweet close to the season for the Sharks

The Shark Tank was filled Tuesday night at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School baseball field with a packed home crowd hoping to see the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks add another chapter in their postseason run. 

Instead, after a back-and-forth battle that came down to the final outs, the Sharks’ season ended one run short with a 7-6 loss to the Mystic Schooners in the deciding game of their playoff run. 

Tuesday’s game marked the Sharks’ 48th game of the summer, bringing their season to a bittersweet close, as the top team of the South Division in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). As the Sharks came to bat at the bottom of the ninth inning, chants of “Let’s go, Sharks!” echoed throughout the diamond. 

Beneath a starry sky and cool breezes, over 3,500 fans filled the stands of the Tank for the winner-takes-all game, marking the largest crowd of the summer. Like local 15-year old Rory Carestia, many fans attended the game for the high stakes of playoffs. Carestia said those “are way more exciting.” 

And the crowd was watching every move by the Sharks collegiate players up until the end. With the victory, the Mystic Schooners move toward the NECBL final four matchups, where they will face the Sanford Mainers. The date of the game has not yet been determined.  

Ryan Gold opened on the mound for the Sharks, dealing strikes as the playoff atmosphere cracked like lightning through the Shark Tank. The first inning became electric when Mystic Schooners’ Anthony Ruggiero drove a sacrifice fly to left field, allowing his teammate Jack Harley to score while a third team mate, Anthony Belisario advanced to third, giving the Schooners an early advantage. 

Sharks’ Head Coach Payton “Skip” Fuller told The Times that the Sharks went into the game with a grounded mindset, knowing this one would be a late and close. “We’ve played [the Schooners] eight times at this point. So I told them, ‘It’s going to be a close game. Let’s just play hard and have fun, see what happens,’” he said.

Minutes after Ruggiero’s sacrifice play, the Schooners’ Jamie Zee was at bat, wearing his eye-catching golden helmet. Fans gasped as Zee swung his bat, driving the ball to right center field as he dashed across the bases just behind Belisario, who made it home for a run. Zee slid for home plate as the call “Safe” rang out, followed by jeers from the bleachers. Only 20 minutes into the game, the score was 3-0, with the first inning closing at 3-1 after Carter Bentley scored the first run of the night for the Sharks. 

The Sharks started to show their teeth in the bottom of the third, with the top of the inning marking two more runs by the Schooners. The Sharks’ third baseman, Nick Rubino, broke the silence with a clean hit, allowing shortstop Wesley Scott to score from second base. To top their last clean play, Sharks centerfielder Griffin Craine batted the ball to the centerfield, making it safely to first base, with shortstop Jackson Taylor advancing to second, in a sweep that sent Taylor and Rubino home for the Sharks, bringing the score to 5-4.

At the bottom of the fourth inning, Sharks shortstop Jackson Roper batted the ball into center field, which ended up being caught by the Schooners on a sacrifice fly that got centerfielder Kevin Hall home from third base, catching the Sharks up at 5-5. The play brought the crowd to its feet in celebration.

However, the Schooners did not let the tied score remain too long. From a fly ball catch to a swift home run; another tied score at 6-6; the Mystic Schooners shortstop Chris Walsh ran toward home for the winning run of the night, bringing the score to 7-6.

The last game of the season had a bittersweet ending to many fans. Melissa Braillard, who has been housing Sharks players for the past five years, told The Times, “For a host parent, if they lose, they leave.” She added, “And they don’t want to leave because they want to keep playing baseball, so I guess that adds to the intensity of the game.” 

Despite the results of the game, Fuller shared that he feels at peace with the season’s close, saying, “No regrets. We had our chances. We just didn’t play it enough.”