Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Boardman junior pitcher Gabi Sferra (middle) and senior first baseman Leah Habeger (left) embrace, while freshman catcher Addie Rudge looks on after the Spartans’ 3-1 loss to Holland Springfield on Friday in the Division III state semifinals at Firestone Stadium.

AKRON — As Boardman senior pitcher Tori Strines started to speak at the OHSAA’s postgame press conference, she struggled to hold back tears.

The realization that her and the rest of the Boardman seniors’ high school softball careers were over had started to set in after the Spartans’ 3-1 defeat at the hands of Holland Springfield on Friday in the Division III state semifinals at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

But even overcome with emotion, she managed to get out the words to convey her feelings on what she and the Spartans had accomplished this season.

“It’s felt like a dream the whole season,” Strines said, choking through her words. “I’ve been here four years, and it just feels great to go out (in our last year) in the state semis.”

What Boardman has done this spring is nothing to scoff at either. The Spartans earned a share of the All-American Conference title, one of the strongest leagues in the state, while also winning their first district title since 2011 and clinching their first regional title and first state final four appearance since 2002.

“It’s been a whirlwind and it’s been an awesome ride. I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls,” Boardman head coach Fred Mootz said. “If you’d have told me we’d only give up three runs today, I never would have thought we would have lost this game. But unfortunately, that’s sometimes just how it goes.”

Boardman got six hits off Springfield pitcher Callee Chappetta, but the Spartans couldn’t string hits together to turn them into runs.

Boardman reached base at least once in each inning, but still couldn’t convert. Chappetta also didn’t give up a walk in her complete-game performance.

“Unfortunately we just couldn’t string hits together or get two-out hits when it mattered most,” Mootz said. “They got some key hits when it mattered most. That’s a veteran club. They were here three years ago as freshmen in Division I, so we knew it was a tough go-around. We played them last year down in Florida and didn’t fare well, so I’m proud of these guys.”

Boardman’s lone exception came in the top of the second inning after a leadoff double from sophomore Mikayla Rivera.

Junior Ellie Wymer then stepped up in the next at-bat and hit another double to score Rivera for the Spartans’ lone run of the game. Rivera was Boardman’s only batter with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles.

“The center fielder, she kept moving and we were picking up on that,” Wymer said. “We were working on the outside pitch a lot because Fred knew that she was going to come out with that.”

With Wymer on second base with no outs, Boardman had a chance to add to its lead, but struck out twice and grounded out to third over the next three at-bats.

With three of the top four hitters in its lineup committed to play college softball, the Blue Devils proved formidable after two quiet innings.

With two outs on the board, Kenya Crowley reached with a double and Hannah Schlachter followed that up with a ground-rule double that scored Springfield’s first run to tie the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third inning.

After keeping Boardman off the scoreboard in the top of the fourth, Chappetta led things off with a triple in the bottom of the frame. Andrella Espino then scored Chappetta with an RBI groundout, and after a walk and a hit-by-pitch, Camryn Hall added one last run for the Blue Devils with an RBI single.

After Strines had pitched the first 3 2/3 innings, the Spartans turned to junior Gabi Sferra to close things out. The pair combined for six strikeouts and three walks, as well as two hit-by-pitches.

“She battled and has always battled. We’re where we’re at because of her,” Mootz said of Strines. “It went the way we thought it would go. We knew Tori would go out there and keep us in the game and do her thing that she’s done this whole season.”

Boardman’s five member senior class of Strines, Ava Freeborough, Alex Ward, Laci Jurus and Leah Habeger leaves behind a decorated legacy.

They came agonizingly close to a district title as freshmen, but they still had to battle through two losing seasons and then a .500 season last year as juniors.

Despite flying under the radar coming into the spring — overshadowed by defending state champions Austintown Fitch and Canfield in their own conference — the Spartans picked up win after win. They split their conference meetings with the Falcons and Cardinals and added victories over traditional powers like Champion, Tallmadge, Painesville Riverside, Archbishop Hoban and Walsh Jesuit on their journey through the regular season and playoffs.

“It’s the best class I’ve ever coached. Not just talent, but they’re just selfless kids,” Mootz said passionately. “They don’t care about their own numbers or their own successes. They just go out and battle for each other. … When I took the job, we were down in the dumps a little. The culture wasn’t a winning mentality. Year-in and year-out, we took our lumps. I just told them, you gotta buy in and you gotta care more for each other than you do for your own success. When you do that, good things happen and you win a lot of games. That’s why we’re here. It has a lot to do with that.”

Now Mootz hopes their experience this season provides the returning underclassmen with the motivation to get back to Akron and continue to build off the success the Spartans enjoyed this spring.

“You don’t just replace five amazing seniors — you just don’t. It’s not something you replace,” Mootz said. “But I got some amazing juniors and an amazing sophomore class that’s been here now. They have a taste of it. We’re good enough to get here and we can obviously build off of this year.

“They’re battle-tested and they’re tough kids. But also, like I said, it’s not just the senior class, this group (of underclassmen) had to buy into what we’re trying to do. I feel good and I feel like we’ll be back here shortly, maybe even next year hopefully.”