It was tough for Bob Wease to say goodbye.

The 81-year-old longtime Harrisonburg Turks head coach doesn’t know how many more summers he’ll be on the ballfield for. Over the last 35 years, Wease has built great relationships with the various players he’s gotten to coach — many he still stays in touch with today.

Wease is always grateful for the players that travel from all over to Harrisonburg to play for him, especially those who stick it out through the summer’s entirety.

“That’s why you appreciate them,” Wease said.

But on Thursday night at James Madison’s Veterans Memorial Park, the quest to win back-to-back Valley Baseball League titles came to an end for Wease and company as the Turks fell to the Culpeper Cavaliers 9-4 in the first round of the playoffs.

Harrisonburg led 1-0 after four innings, but Culpeper put its first runs on the board in authoritative manner in the fifth inning by driving four runs across.

The Turks had their opportunities throughout the evening as they left 13 runners on base, but seemingly couldn’t chalk up the timely hit when they needed it.

Trailing by three after eight innings, a disastrous top of the ninth that saw the Cavaliers drive another four runs home ultimately doomed the Turks.

Harrisonburg didn’t back away in the bottom frame of the ninth, however, as it drove two runs across and had the bases loaded. Still, it was too much to overcome.

“It was a ballgame if we did a couple things differently there,” Wease said. “Of course, we gave up four runs in the top of the ninth. If we don’t give those up, we were going to win that ballgame in the ninth there — because it was going to be 5-3 with the bases loaded. It happens. It’s just so doggone hard for me to say goodbye to these guys.”

Pitcher Nathan Leininger (Toledo) earned the victory on the mound for Culpeper, fanning five strikeouts in three innings pitched, while David Davilla (Florida State) suffered the loss for Harrisonburg after a four-inning outing where he struck out five.

Second baseman Jalen Evans (Wingate) notched a double in one of Harrisonburg’s four hits in the contest, ending the summer with 32 hits.

“We were hitting the ball, we just couldn’t get anything to land,” Evans said. “You can’t really do anything different.”

Left fielder Chris Katz (Wake Forest), who had just played his final game with the Turks, said the postgame team meeting wasn’t wasted on sulking in their season-ending defeat, but rather be appreciative of the people who were around them all summer.

“A lot of gratitude was expressed both ways,” Katz said. “From Bob, [Team President Gerald Harman], and the rest of the coaching staff to the players, and to the players back to them. Everybody was very grateful to be in Harrisonburg today, regardless of the outcome.”

Despite the early postseason exit, Wease is confident he still had the best team the VBL had to offer.

Unfortunately, like Wease has had to endure many times, a lot of his star players left the team prematurely for circumstances such as injuries — including many of his pitchers.

We’ll never know what the Turks in full force would’ve been capable of in the postseason, but Wease is adamant that he had the team to beat for a second straight VBL crown.

Yet, that desire for another championship trophy came to an end at the hands of Culpeper on Thursday night.

“Halfway through the season, I honestly believe we had the best ballclub,” Wease said. “In fact, I know we did.”

Culpeper 000 040 014 — 9 14 1

Harrisonburg 001 000 102 — 4 4 2

Leininger, Peek (4), Hund (7), Ottone (9), and Peterson. Davilla, Craig (5), Nelson (8), White (9), and Delgado. W — Leininger. L — Davilla. 2B — CUL: Pado 2, Howard, Reyna. HAR: Evans. SB — CUL: Pado, Jordan 2, Howard 3. HAR: Perez, Zarlingo. CS — HAR: Evans. E — CUL: Jordan. HAR: Perez, Zarlingo.