The Wanderers’ quest for a fourth consecutive NORCO Legion championship came to an end in a dramatic three-game semifinal series against Nazareth.

After opening the series with a convincing 11-1 victory, the Wanderers (10-4-1) were edged 1-0 in Game 2 before Nazareth claimed the decisive third game, 6-5, ending the Wanderers’ season one win shy of another trip to the league championship series.

For a program that had reached the NORCO finals in each of the previous three summers, the early exit was disappointing, but head coach Paul Walsh refused to let one series overshadow what his team accomplished throughout the season.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Walsh said. “Our expectation every year is to be playing for a championship, so falling one game short stings. But I don’t want one loss to define what this group accomplished. They won a lot of baseball games, represented our organization the right way, and battled all summer. Sometimes you run into a good team that plays a little better than you on a given night.”

Although the Wanderers won’t have the opportunity to defend their title in the championship series, Walsh believes the program’s sustained success speaks for itself.

“I think that speaks to the consistency of this program more than anything,” Walsh said. “Getting to the championship isn’t something you take for granted. We were fortunate to make deep runs the last three seasons, and while we’re disappointed, we couldn’t get back this year, being in the semifinals again says a lot about the players we’ve had and the standard they’ve established.”

That standard has also brought added pressure. As the defending champions, the Wanderers entered every game with a target on their backs, something Walsh said his players embraced.

“It’s definitely a challenge because every team circles your game on the schedule,” Walsh said. “You tend to get everyone’s best effort, and that’s a compliment to our players and our program. We’d much rather be the team everyone is chasing than the one trying to catch up.”