It wasn’t the end any member of the Joliet West softball team wanted. A 5-0 loss to Homewood Flossmoor in the Homewood-Flossmoor Class 4A Regional semifinals isn’t how any team wants their year to close.

As the old saying goes, of course, only the state champions and third place finishers end the year with a win. It’s an unfortunate reality that the Tigers accepted.

It was an up and down year overall for the Tigers (15-18). On one hand, they started off just 2-8, but they followed that up with five wins in six games to pull close to .500.

A four-game losing skid was followed by eight wins in 10 games to even their record, but closing the year out with consecutive losses to Plainfield East and Oswego East sent them into the postseason on a sour note.

The ninth seed of the Lincoln-Way West Sectional, Joliet West had the unenviable task of heading to Homewood-Flossmoor’s home field. The sixth-seeded Vikings took advantage to the tune of nine hits compared to none for the Tigers.

Still, this season was a success by many measures. Last year saw the Tigers finish 8-21. They nearly doubled their win total and reduced their losses in a sign of growth for a program that still has a good deal of youth on it.

“We only have two seniors and we’re going to obviously miss them,” coach Heather Suca said. “They’ve been a part of the program for four years and it hurts to see them go.

“The flip side is we had two sophomores and two freshmen out on the field. One was on the mound. We just need to take this as a learning experience. We came a long way this year from where we started.”

Ella Featherston and Mackenzie Mielke are the lone departing seniors for Joliet West. Suca wished them well moving forward.

“They’re just great kids who I never had to worry about off the field,” Suca said. “Mielke would run through a brick wall for you if you asked her to while Ella is one of the most aggressive players who has ever been around here. Consistent, great attitudes, they’ll be great whatever they decide to do.”

The game itself was death by a thousand paper cuts. Joliet West kept the Vikings from exploding, but were unable to answer on the offensive end.

A two-out triple by Dakota Hoekstra in the bottom of the second scored Demi Chaney to put the Vikings up 1-0 and start things off.

All it took for Homewood-Flossmoor to break the game open was one big hit in the third inning. After singles by Gabby Browder and Anna Richmond, Izzy Thurman stepped up to the plate and knocked one over the fence to extend the Vikings lead to 4-0.

Taylor Puchas’ single in the bottom of the fourth sent Hoekstra home and stretched it to 5-0.

Again, the focus for Joliet West after the game was over was on the memories made together.

“Becoming close with my teammates has meant a lot to me,” Featherston said. “Mistakes don’t define you so you just have to learn how to keep your head up. ...(The future of this program) looks great.”

Homewood-Flossmoor will go on to play top-seeded Lincoln-Way West in the Homewood-Flossmoore Regional finals on Friday at 5 p.m. Joliet West will continue to build for the future.

“If we keep progressing the way we progressed this season and come back even better we’ll put ourselves in a good spot,” Suca said. “They’ve all got experience playing in the postseason. We’ve got seven returning starters next year so don’t hang your heads.”