The Clymer and Sherman baseball programs didn’t come together until essentially the last inning of their offseasons.

Saturday at Diethrick Park, they kept their Section VI championship dreams alive until the last inning.

Unfortunately, those dreams ended with a 1-0 loss to defending sectional champion and state semifinalist Brocton.

Numbers have caught up to many athletics programs at Clymer, Sherman and Panama in the past several years.

And while the school districts themselves still haven’t merged, many of their sports teams have. Football, swimming, track and field, bowling, wrestling and golf have already felt the pinch, either having to merge their teams with each other, or find other districts willing to take on their student-athletes. Now baseball has been thrown in the mix.

“I think the Clymer/Sherman thing is going to continue,” Clymer/Sherman head coach Bob Newton said after Saturday’s loss. “I don’t know if Panama is going to get in on the thing or not. I haven’t really heard.”

This spring, just two weeks before opening practices, the Clymer and Sherman baseball teams found out they wouldn’t have enough varsity players to field teams on their own. A new program was created — practically from scratch — and uniforms were ordered with an interlocking “CS” on the front. A nickname and/or mascot wasn’t even chosen and the coaching staff wasn’t officially notified until March 1, three days before the season began. The teams began practicing together, one week in Clymer and the next in Sherman, until games began.

“We didn’t know what the practice schedule would be,” Newton said. “It was kind of rushed there at the last minute.”

Sherman had a set schedule, which remains on the Arbiterlive.com website even today, that had to be scrapped. Clymer/Sherman lost a pair of league games due to the merger, and due to weather cancellations was only able to get in two nonleague games all spring.

But the team gelled at the right time, beating Westfield in its final regular season game to lock in to the No. 3 seed for the Class D playoffs.

A mild upset of No. 2 Franklinville in the semifinal round gave them a date with the Bulldogs yesterday, and Clymer/Sherman ace Lucas Willink dueled Brocton ace Ronald “Bubba” Brown pitch for pitch. Clymer/Sherman nearly tied the game in the top of the fifth inning, but a close play at first base nullified what would’ve been the tying run.

Again in the seventh, Clymer/Sherman put its leadoff runner on base, but a botched sacrifice bunt attempt led to a double play. Trent Burchanowski then worked a walk, but Brown punched out the final Clymer/Sherman hitter to end the game.

“We put the ball in play. We just can’t hit fly balls all day and expect to win baseball games,” Newton said. “Defensively, we played well. We pitched really well. We put the bat on the ball, but we just didn’t make them field the ball.”

The team received contributions from players who came from both schools all spring. Even the starting lineup Saturday was a fairly even blend of former Wildcats and Pirates. Leadoff batter Michael Beatman, who played shortstop, No. 3 hitter Reece Bates (catcher) and cleanup hitter Derek Sears (center field) all hail from Sherman. No. 2 hitter Garrett McClelland (third base) and Nos. 5-9 hitters Lucas Willink (pitcher), Matthew White (first base), Burchanowski (second base), Connor Beal (right field) and Zavon Overton (left field) are all Clymer products. Pinch-hitters Hunter Cooper and Keith Gormley are both from Sherman.

“It’s not like one was favored over the other. You actually had to work for something,” Newton said. “You should be proud of yourself for being out there … you just couldn’t show up and have 10 guys there, and need nine of them on the field.”

The full roster of 14 players featured six from Sherman and eight from Clymer. Those numbers alone show that neither school could’ve put a legit varsity lineup on the field this spring. In addition, what the merger allowed was both schools to merge for a modified program. Whereas last season, Clymer featured five seventh- and eighth-graders, this season only one eighth-grader — Burchanowski — was on the varsity roster.

“I’ve said for years, the only way Sherman, Clymer and Panama were going to get any better was to merge and have a modified program. We were just going to beat up on each other. When we play those good programs, we just can’t compete with them because we were two or three ball players short,” Newton said. “This year we had depth, which we never had before. That was hard for some of the kids that just played all the time before. Now they actually hard to work for something. It’s a good life lesson.”

In the immediate aftermath of a sectional final loss, the players likely won’t view this season as a success. But knowing where the program came from just three short months ago, there is really no other way to see it.

“The parents were great. That was a big help. We didn’t have any problems. The parents chipped in and helped,” Newton said. “The boys knew each other and got along well. It was a good season.”