Longtime Souhegan teammtes Joe Mayo, left, and Ethan Gaudet embrace after the Sabers season ended Wednesday night in the Division II semifinals in Concord. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

CONCORD – The moment Souhegan High School baseball coach Chris Metz was dreading finally arrived.

It was not only the end of a season when the No. 8 Sabers fell to No. 4 St.Thomas 7-3 in the Division II semifinals at Warren Doane Field, it was the end of an era.

“I just want to talk about my seniors, they left a legacy,” Metz said of the group led by catcher Joe Mayo, who had been ill and had to get fluids to be able to play last night. “Those guys were great. They helped us build this program to where it is, this is their third year out of four in the semifinals. It’s just a tough way to end. It was either going to end today or end on Saturday. It ended tonight, not the way we wanted.But again, these seniors are phenomenal.”

But the Saints (17-5) appear to be the hot team of the tourney, and will take on No. 2 Kingswood (16-2) in Saturday’s title game at Manchester’s Delta Dental Stadium at a time to likely be determined today.

The Sabers had grabbed a 2-0 lead on a two-run hit by Carter Glines in the second inning, but the Saints got to Sabers starter Blake Powers in the third on a bases loaded hit by pitch and then a Kenny Avery sac fly to tie it and an RBI single by Ryan Gould to plate two more and give the Saints a 5-2 lead.

“They just worked so hard,” St.Thomas coach Eric Wells said. “The only thing we talked about is we were coming here to win. … We competed we played hard, we came here to win, we didn’t just come here to celebrate and say it’s a great season.

“To get down 2-0 against the defending champs with an unreal coaching staff over there, they play the game the right way, we’re going to seem them for years. I’m going to have a lot of fun doing it against Chris.”

“They were grinding,” Metz said. “We were up 2-0, they executed on some things and we didn’t execute. That’s the way the game of baseball, is.”

The Sabers got a run back in the fourth on a Glines sac fly, but St. Thomas in the fifth plated a run on a throwing error to make it 6-3. And Colin Healy made it 7-3 with an RBI single off one of those seniors Metz will miss greatly, Ethan Gaudet, and that made it 7-3.

The Sabers tried to mount a rally in the top of the seventh when Saints starter Hayden White plunked both Brody Smith and Alex Trudel to start the seventh. But reliever Beckett Farrand retired the next three Saber hitters and it was over.

Souhegan was all set with pitching galore, which gave them hope for the upset.

“Our guys were fresh,” Metz said. “We loved our chances with our horses. It’s high school baseball, they executed and we didn’t do certain things we should have done.

“That’s baseball, that’s life.”

And that’s the end of a great Saber run.