MIDDLEPORT - There are times in life when "all good things must come to an end."

Unfortunately, for the Marian baseball team, the end came sooner than anyone ever anticipated.In Wednesday's District 11 Class A quarterfinal between Nativity and Marian, the sixth-seeded Hilltoppers stunned the third-seeded Colts, 5-2, to advance to Friday's semifinal against Schuylkill Haven.While Marian entered the contest as a prohibitive favorite riding a nine-game winning streak and a regular season sweep of Nativity (an 11-9 victory on April 16 and an 8-5 win on May 8), the Hilltoppers relied on a freshman pitcher, one huge swing of the bat and a little bit of luck to pull off the upset.The loss not only ended the scholastic careers of seven Marian seniors, it also signified the end of an era for one of the all-time greats, as Colts head coach Jeff Nietz closed the book on his 21-year tenure at Marian."I certainly didn't expect it to end this way, but give 100-percent credit to Nativity. Those guys came out and played a whale of a ballgame today. Their pitcher kept us off balance the entire game and took our offense away," stated Nietz. "Everything we threw at them or tried to do against them backfired."After Nativity (11-9) put its first two hitters on base in the top of the first inning, Kyle Kaledas grounded to Marian shortstop Dante Salerno for what appeared to be a tailor-made 6-3 double play. After Salerno stepped on the second base bag, he threw to first baseman Peter Baddick, but the ball ripped through the webbing of Baddick's glove and shot into foul territory. As a result, Dylan Palamar scored the game's first run and Kaledas later came around to score on a Luke Stawick balk."We didn't know what exactly happened until he came over and showed us that the laces were busted out of the glove," added Nietz. "It's an unfortunate freak thing, but if the glove doesn't break there, we get out of the inning unscathed and it's a whole different ballgame."Marian closed the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the third when Baddick roped a single into left field to score KJ Snerr. The Colts had an opportunity to manufacture another run earlier in the inning but a safety squeeze by Frank Nietz failed and Dante Salerno was called out at a close play at the plate that resulted in a 1-3-2 double play. Following Baddick's RBI-single, Nativity pitcher Riley White ended up retiring 12 of the next 13 Marian batters that stepped to the plate to preserve the lead.White picked up some insurance runs in the top of the fifth inning when junior Collin McGovern sent a towering three-run homer run over the center field fence. With two outs and a runner on second base, Nietz opted to intentionally walk cleanup hitter Aric Foster to face McGovern. With a two-strike count, McGovern proceeded to make the Colts pay by blasting his first home run of the season for the game's biggest blow, as the Hilltoppers extended their lead to 5-1. All five of Nativity's runs were unearned."Foster has really hurt us this year with seven hits in two games (7-for-9), so when he came up with a base open and a runner in scoring position, we just figured the smart thing was to put him on," noted Nietz. "The guy behind him was 0-for-7 and hasn't done anything against us all year, so we figured we'd go with the odds. Again, it was one of those things that just didn't work in our favor tonight."Marian (15-6) tacked on a final run in the bottom of the seventh when Anthony Agosti scored on a Dante Salerno RBI single. Agosti and Salerno had two hits apiece to lead Marian, who entered the contest averaging 11.05 runs per game and 11.85 hits per game."For the past 21 years, I've been blessed with really good kids and a great staff. The success I've had is because of them," reflected Nietz. "I just got done telling my guys that unless you win a state championship, this moment is always going to come, so you have to be prepared for it. The thing about it though is that they could still go on and play, whereas I am done. That fact hasn't really hit me yet, but I'm sure it will either tomorrow or later tonight."Schuylkill League baseball is the best though with classy programs, good kids and great coaches, and I'm just glad that I've been able to be a small part of that. I would not have wanted to spend 21 years in any other league," concluded Nietz. "It's been a great ride. I've enjoyed every minute of it, but I am going to be very sad that it's over."Nativity 200 030 0 - 5 6 0Marian 001 000 1 - 2 7 2White and Foster; Stawick and Snerr. W - White. L - Stawick. HR: Nativity - McGovern (5th, two on).