ST. MARYS — The pressure of the bright lights of postseason baseball has undone many promising young baseball teams. In the case of the Bradford Owls, the actual lights had a lot to do with how their season came to an end on Wednesday night.

A bizarre series of lost fly balls — coupled with a string of extra-base hits by St. Marys  — led to Bradford falling to the Dutch 12-2 in five innings in Wednesday’s District 9 Class AAAA Semifinal contest at Berwind Park.

St. Marys (16-4) scored six runs in both the second and fourth innings, with those runs coming under vastly different circumstances.

The second inning was sparked by three straight doubles from Brendon Rolley, Jake Meeker, and Brandon Sicheri. Nate Beimel capped things off with a two-run home run to right field.

But it was in the fourth inning where things really got away from the Owls.

Trailing 6-2 heading into the frame, the Owls would commit four errors in the inning as Bradford’s fielders simply couldn’t locate the ball in the bright lights and the twilight-shaded sky.

It was a set of circumstances that left Bradford coach Andy Carlson shaking his head.

“I’m super proud of the way that the guys battled,” he said. “I could never have expected for the lights to play that big of a factor. We may not have won the game in the end, but we had a chance. Then we had four or five fly balls when the guys literally never saw it. I mean how do you get mad at someone for never seeing the ball? Once it’s fluky; four or five times… it’s something else.”

Carlson took a moment to address his infield, with the message to simply keep plugging away.

“At that point we were sort of stuck in purgatory,” he said. “There was nothing we could do; we couldn’t slide out of it. It was just that twilight. By the end of the inning, it was dark enough that the guys were seeing the ball. But for the very beginning of the inning, they just never saw it. I just said, ‘Keep playing.’”

The Owls finally got out of the inning on — of all things — a high pop-up to shortstop. But the damage had already been done.

It wasn’t as if the Dutch needed any help thanks to the strong outing from junior starter Nate Beimel, who struck out seven Bradford batters in four innings.

“We faced one of the best pitchers that we’ll face in the next three or four years, and he’s back next year,” Carlson said. “He’s really, really good. Yeah, he struck out some guys, but we got some good swings on him.”

One of those swings came in the top of the first, when senior Isaac Gralak launched a solo home run to right field to give Bradford its only lead of the ballgame.

“He was out for a couple weeks and he’s never hit like he’s capable of,” Carlson said of Gralak. “We played (St. Marys) twice without him and as soon as he hit the ball, their coaches were like, ‘Who the heck is that kid?’ Because he’s good. He’s got the talent to be a next level player. He puts on a show sometimes in BP; he drives the ball. He’s an excellent kid, he’s a great athlete in two sports. Love him.”

Unfortunately, Gralak’s long ball would be one of only three Bradford hits in the game. The other two came courtesy of Tyler Gigliotti, who notched an RBI double in the third and a single in the fifth.

Peyton Manion and Adam Boyer combined for two strikeouts while allowing eight hits and six walks on the mound for Bradford.

St. Marys will advance to the District 9 title game next week against Clearfield, who defeated Punxsutawney 8-2.

Bradford, meanwhile, finishes the season with a record of 10-11. The Owls bid farewell to seniors Boyer, Gralak, Hunter Gray, Brody Nay, and Dan Manion, who will continue his playing career next year at St. Bonaventure.

“Fantastics kids,” Carlson said of his senior class. “Those kids have never been in trouble in school, they get decent grades, they show up, their attendance is not an issue. They’re awesome kids. They’ve seen a lot of victories here at Bradford High in comparison to a lot of other people that have been through the program.”

AT ST. MARYS

R H E

Bradford  011 00X X   2 3 5

St. Marys 060 6XX X  12 8 0

Peyton Manion (1 SO, 2 BB), Adam Boyer (2) (1 SO, 4 BB), and Caleb Nuzzo

Nate Beimel (7 SO, 4 BB), Tim Beimel (5) (3 SO), and Jake Meeker

HR: Isaac Gralak (B), Nate Beimel (SM)