| Anthony Surber continued
playing baseball oversees after completing his senior season at
SUNYIT. SUNYIT athletics photo |
MARCY, N.Y. – Former college athletes – or at least
the vast majority of us who didn't go on to compete professionally
– know that the last game of our college career will be
something we remember forever, right up there with our wedding days
or the births of our children.
For example: Home game against Tufts University. Overcast. Nine AM
start time on a Sunday morning due to rainouts the previous day.
Our third baseman and shortstop both got picked off in the same
inning. We lost.
At least one aspect of that description is the same for all but a
precious few. As head coaches are fond of saying "every team in
America, except one, loses its last game of the season."
For 2012 SUNYIT senior Anthony Surber, the day of reckoning came on
Saturday, April 28th in the form of a 3-1 loss to Gallaudet. The
loss knocked SUNYIT out of the NEAC Conference Tournament.
"It was definitely sad," said Surber in a recent interview. "You
don't think about it until it's over, and then you think back over
those four years…I didn't think I'd get as emotional as I
did."
And that's where it should've ended, like it does for thousands of
20-plus-year-old men and women every year. A few tears, a hug from
friends and family, and the strange realization that deep down all
those years you'd never really admitted to yourself that it
couldn't last forever; and then it's over. It happens with striking
suddenness - especially for spring athletes, where end-of-semester
finals and graduation come at lightning speed. With almost no time
to mourn the end of what is generally a colossal time commitment
from tee ball to college ball, you're being kicked out of your dorm
and shoved to the nearest convention with resumes falling out of
every pocket.
But what if you got a second chance? What if you were able to play
a second last game, with the newfound realization of just how
precious each inning or quarter really is?
This summer Anthony Surber got to find out the answer to just such
a question when he was invited to play overseas as a part of the
American International Sports Teams (AIST) Baseball Team. The team
is made up of exceptional Division II and III baseball talent from
across the nation. Surber was selected as part of a team heading to
the Czech Republic for the Prague Baseball Week tournament.
"Soobie" as his Wildcat teammates nicknamed him, easily showed that
he belonged on the team of all-starts. In the week-and-a-half-long
tournament the 6-4 lefty went 3-for-6 at the plate (you can see one
of those three hits in this video – it's the first clip) and
also maintained an E.R.A. under 2.00 on the mound.
Surber represented SUNYIT well even beyond his performance on the
diamond. In a statement to SUNYIT Athletics, a representative of
AIST said of Anthony:
"It was a pleasure having Anthony on tour with us this summer in
Prague. Anthony was a big help to our team at the plate as
well as in the field. These are the caliber of players we
look for every year."
Surber's team – one of two AIST teams to compete – went
on to win the Prague Baseball Week Championship for a record
third-consecutive year. No team has accomplished such a feat in the
31-year history of the tournament.
And so Surber, a two-time NEAC All-Conference selection, got to do
what so few get to. In a game that mattered, playing against others
still at the peak of their athletic abilities, the 6-4 lefty got to
win his last game.
Rather than tears or regret, this will be Anthony's last
competitive baseball memory. Rather than relegation, Surber
finishes on top – literally (Surber is #26, seen in the video
jumping on top of the dog pile after his U.S. team won Gold).
Those old coaches are right, though: almost no team in America wins
its last game. Luckily for Surber, he's not afraid to travel.
For more information on AIST and to see more highlights from
Anthony's tournament, visit the AIST website at
http://www.aist.us/