Birmingham Southern’s Postseason Magic… is... Officially Over
The Curtain Has Closed at Birmingham Southern University after a Baseball Tournament Loss
Class is officially over at Birmingham Southern University.
The doors are locked, the tears are flowing, the past and the future for one Alabama community is coming full circle for the city of Birmingham and the last baseball team to etch its name in the history books.
Yes, that is correct!
The magical run of Birmingham Southern baseball and the 168 years of memories the school the team represents… ended today in Eastlake, Ohio.
According to Fox Sports, the Panthers, after riding a magical season full of so many extreme highs and lows, the team lost to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 11–10 in the Division III NCAA Baseball World Series Tournament.
The team had made national headlines for pulling off a magical run in the NCAA DIII Baseball Tournament to end up going to Ohio, but that didn’t come without its challenges.
Birmingham Southern University closed its doors on May 31, 2024, after undistributed loans caused havoc with state lawmakers in Alabama causing the school to close after 168 years. While that was going on, the NCAA Baseball Tournament was going on, and while that was going on the Panthers baseball team was playing in the Super Regionals of the baseball tournament.
On the day the final graduation was held, the team beat Dension University based out of Ohio 7–6 in a clip featured on X and viewed almost one million times as the announcer voiced what the team was fighting through.
After winning yesterday to the 24th-ranked Division III baseball team in the country, Randolph-Macon College, and with the score tied at seven a piece, star Panthers player, Jackson Webs, hit a towering homer to left field to keep the Panthers alive in the tournament after losing the first game of the first tournament game in a double elimination style bracket.
Then as the rain moved out of the Ohio area this afternoon, the Panthers fought against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, ranked fifth in the country, and lost after Sam Paden hit a towering home run in the ninth to seal the deal for Whitewater as they beat Birmingham Southern, 11–10.
In an emotional video posted by sports play-by-play announcer and reporter, Ira Thor, the Birmingham Southern team embraced with one last goodbye to the fans and parents who sacrificed school and community to cheer on the now-gone institution.
The players cried along with their coaches, the team held hands and walked out together in harmony as the 168-year-old curtain finally closed on the historic Alabama education institution.