A disappointing end to the baseball season

MONTGOMERY, Alabama  -- That's why they play the game.

If you were following along with the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship game, you could see a confident, relaxed Jackson State playing the way it always plays in mid-May, winning its 16^th conference baseball championship and advancing to the NCAA regionals for the second consecutive year.

Or you could watch their opponent, an Alabama State team heavily favored to win its first conference baseball championship, giving up 17 hits, committing a pair of costly fielding mistakes and losing 9-8 to Jackson State. Watching as their trip to the NCAA regionals went to someone else. Watching as all their hard work this season – which resulted in a pretty remarkable year and a school-record 37 wins – came to a crashing halt on a youth baseball field in New Orleans.

And that, coaches like to say in a cliché that is way overused, is why they play the game.

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