Calvary Day at Aquinas in the GHSA Class A quarterfinals. The rest of the story.

Aquinas coach Mike Laney felt the thud of a season coming to a halt after his achieving team was swept in the Class A state quarterfinals on Tuesday. Calvary Day advanced to host Gordon Lee in the state semifinals on May 28 with 4-3 and 6-0 wins at Aquinas Stadium.

The Irish moved on to clean out lockers, turn in equipment and slap the back of a teammate or two for the last time.

"My guys are hurting right now," Laney said. "It's a tough way to end this."

But then Laney thought of his team's 24-win season and first trip to the state quarterfinals.

"The bottom line is this was just a great year," Laney said. "These guys raised the bar. Raised the expectations. They put the work in. Saw the rewards that come from hard work. They understand the sacrifices they have to make to be really good at this. I think they really understand that now. The guys on this team have been walking around the last five years saying 'Why are those other area teams so good? Why can't we be like Greenbrier? Why can't we be like Evans.' We just kept telling them you have to work. These kids can see the fruits of all that work now. Hopefully, we've started something good. A new level for our program with this year."

Laney tipped his cap to the Cavaliers. But he would not go so far as saying they were the better team.

"I'd have loved to have gotten to a game three," Laney said. "I felt real good about going to a third game against that crowd."

Senior outfielder John Douglas agreed with him. Calvary Day regrouped from a 3-0 deficit with two runs in the fifth and seventh innings to earn a 4-3 win in the first game of the series. It was THE swing game of the series. Douglas blew the save in that game.

Future South Georgia College catcher Brandon Collins drove in all four of Calvary's runs with two outs during the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader.

"We should have won that first game," Douglas said, who will report to Auburn to begin classes and workouts with the Auburn football team on June 10. "I don't want to say they are that much better than us. I don't want to say we are that much better than them. It was a hard-fought series. They just beat us today. I won't say they are that much better than us. Not at all."

Laney stressed the importance of Collins' two-run home run in the seventh inning that won the first game. He said that and the thrilling ending to that same game set the tone for the rest of the day. Drew Garren came up with a hit with two outs with junior outfielder Marshall Malchow at second base. 

Malchow was thrown out at the plate by Calvary center fielder Blake Jones. His throw beat Malchow to the plate by two steps. It was a great hit from Garren. And a better throw from Jones, who'd go on to drive in two runners and score three runs in the second game of the day.

"We've just got to get that out in the seventh inning of that first game," Laney said. "We've got a team that makes that play and gets that out most times in that situation. I bet if we played that scenario over 50 times, we'd get that out a majority of the time. Then I bet if we do the same thing with that two-out hit we find a way to score Malchow a majority of the time."

Calvary (29-3) had a triumphant end to a hectic day.

"Everything went wrong for us today leading up to this game," Calvary coach Danny Farmer said, who's program won the Class A state title in 2005. "The dang bus showed up an hour and 15 minutes late. So we had to deal with some adversity today. Aquinas went up 3-0 early on us and we were playing on the road. We teach these guys to stay focused and play seven innings. Then anything can happen. We just try to stay positive through all that bad stuff and not try to bring the morale of our team down when that stuff starts to stack up on us."

The major rebuilding effort for the Irish for the 2008 season is the search for a new pitching rotation. Senior Graham Whisenhunt threw six superb innings against the Cavaliers on Tuesday. He left with a 3-2 lead and had managed to get in and out of trouble all afternoon. Team ace Mike Cardwell wasn't his usual sharp self against the Cavaliers in the second game, but he will be missed.

The candidates to throw the big innings next season look like first baseman Nigh Dorr, second baseman Drew Garren and sophomore catcher Brandon Paul. Laney had said Paul would start a third game this week if the Calvary series went that far.

"Going deep in the playoffs is so much more fun and so much more intense," Douglas said. "Every pitch is so intense. It's so much fun to have all these people here. We lost today, but it's good that we got here. Hopefully it sets the precedent for the kids coming up to play for Aquinas. This program is better off for getting this far this year."

Look for shortstop Andrew Williams to lead the area in hitting again next year. First baseman Nigh Dorr showed agility in the field, a quick bat and overall toughness during the state playoffs this year. Malchow also proved to be an above-average fielder in left. He also rapped out four hits against the Cavaliers.

If the Irish can find some pitching, the future looks bright. But that same thing can be said about 75 percent of the prep teams in this area.