Tournament trail ends for many good teams too early

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Tournament time in any sport offers excitement and reminders that many are called and few are chosen. Many good teams fail to survive when one team captures a championship.

Both the Aurora University baseball team and the Waubonsee Community college women’s soccer team finished wonderful, winning seasons, however, ended their seasons prior to their best wishes. Both abrupt ends came in tournament play.

Aurora advanced to the NCAA Division III regional tournament in St. Paul, Minn. through its championship in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament championship. The Spartans won one game and lost two games to finish with a 38-8 record at Northwestern University campus in St. Paul. The season provided a tie for most victories by Aurora University in one season, 38, with teams in 2000 and 2012.

Waubonsee, meanwhile, based in Sugar Grove, qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournament. It was the third time in National Tournament in school history.

Success in later months will be more obvious.

• High school sports will have two more weeks of competition in the abbreviated season caused by COVID-19. The final Saturday for the seasons will be June 19. Then hopes spring eternal for the 2021-2022 school year.

• In Major League Baseball, there may have been good reasons, logistics and long games, to play two seven-inning games for doubleheaders, however, adjustment likely will be a long-time in arriving.

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