Free State catcher Adam Petz waits for a throw to the plate as the Maize team celebrates the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Maize won, 1-0, on Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark and advanced to the championship game. The Firebirds then lost, 9-1, to Shawnee Mission Northwest in the third-place game.

Through the first 17 innings of this year’s Class 6A state baseball tournament at Kansas University’s Hoglund Ballpark, Free State High had surrendered just one run.

So how was it that the Firebirds found themselves playing for third place Saturday, a day after a dominant, five-inning victory against Wichita Northwest and a few minutes after what likely will go down as the marquee game of this year’s tourney?

Free State infielder Cory Delg runs down Shawnee Mission Northwest runner Nick Feighner (2) for an out in the third-place game of the Class 6A state tournament. Free State lost, 9-1, on Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark.

Simple, according to Free State coach Mike Hill.

“This whole thing’s a crap shoot,” Hill said moments after his team’s loss in Saturday’s consolation game. “But that’s the way it is. You get here and you have to make plays to move on. Today we didn’t get it done.”

If it were that simple, dropping the final two games of a 19-6 season likely would have been easier to swallow. Instead, the Firebirds left the field for the final time in 2010 with a mix of tears, blank stares and shoulder shrugs after a 1-0 loss to top-seeded Maize in the semifinals was followed by a 9-1 dud against Shawnee Mission Northwest in the third-place contest.

“Our dream was to win a state championship,” senior outfielder Connor Stremel said. “It’s pretty tough to go back out there and play for third after that dream gets crushed.”

In reality, the Firebirds never appeared to be fully into the final game of their season. Despite hanging close and eventually tying things at 1-all in the top of the fifth, Free State did several things that were uncharacteristic. Third baseman Cory Delg made two errors, Hill was late to the coaching box in the fifth, and the overall body language of the team in green evoked visions of a team simply trying to make it through the rest of the day without breaking down.

Free State catcher Cody Oller (6) tags out Shawnee Mission Northwest runner Tyler Nepote at the plate in the third-place game of the 6A state baseball tournament.

“We didn’t want to mail it in,” Hill said. “We always take the field with a certain expectation. But it’s very difficult when you get your heart ripped out and stomped on to go out there 15 minutes later and play again.”

In the semifinal loss to Maize, Free State had its chances to avoid that fate. None was better than in the top of the eighth after Michael Lisher led off with a single and Delg followed with a walk putting runners at first and second with no outs.

Stremel followed and failed to execute a sacrifice bunt. Senior Nick Hassig then ripped a shot to the gap in left center that was held up by the wind just enough to become a loud out. The inning ended when Cody Kukuk — who had the defensive play of the game in the third, when he threw out Maize’s J.C. Sturgeon at home plate to end the inning — flied out to center. Five batters later, Maize pushed the game’s only run across the plate on a sacrifice fly by Ross Cunningham off of FSHS starter Colin Toalson.

“We’re an inch or two from playing in the state championship game,” Hill said. “But I’ll tell you something, Nick (Hassig) hit an absolute rocket in the eighth, and (one batter earlier) there’s no one I would’ve rather had at the plate than (Stremel). I’m enormously proud of these guys. They showed an incredible amount of fortitude and courage and played enormously well.”

Of the opportunity in the eighth, Stremel added: “Most of the time those types of plays are easy for us, but it just came down to the little things, and unfortunately they didn’t go our way today. I wish it would’ve fallen our way, but I’m OK to say that my baseball career ended in a game like that.”

Lost in Saturday’s heartbreak was Toalson’s performance against Maize. Toalson went the distance for Free State, giving up just one run and five hits while striking out seven and walking only one.

“I cannot describe how well Colin Toalson performed,” Hill said.

In the nightcap, Hill demonstrated that this year’s Free State team was about more than its superstars. Several seldom-used players cracked the lineup in the finale including junior catcher Cody Oller and senior pitchers Robert Wagner, Eric Anderson and Greg Davis. In fact, the two-thirds of an inning that Davis pitched marked the first varsity appearance of his high school career.

“There were some other things that needed to occur in that last game,” Hill said of his decision to get everyone into the game. “And I think they happened.”