Newburgh Free Academy’s baseball team didn’t go down without a fight in its Section 9 Class AA semifinal contest with old rival Kingston on May 25.

Trailing 8-3 heading into the top of the seventh at Gruner Field in Lake Katrine, the Goldbacks scored three runs to cut their deficit to 8-6 and had the tying runs on base.

But when John Ahearn grounded out for the third out, the No. 3 Goldbacks’ rally was cut short and No. 2 Kingston escaped with an 8-6 win. The loss ended NFA’s campaign with a 12-9 record, while the host Tigers (15-6) moved on to a May 29 showdown with top-seeded Pine Bush at Cantine Field in Saugerties.

Newburgh coach Scott Seabury praised his team for its fighting spirit right to the very last out.

“I’m proud of the way the guys fought back,” Seabury said. “But that’s the way it rolls. You just tip your hat to Kingston. They were the better team today. The two schools are a big rival. They just made a couple more plays and put the ball in play a couple more times than we did.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the opening inning, the Goldbacks came back to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the third off Kingston ace Derek Constance on Tyler Martin’s RBI ground out and a run-scoring single from Roberto Reade.

The Tigers, though, came back to score two runs to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third and added another in the fourth off NFA starter Tyler Slaughter to build a 4-2 lead.

Slaughter struggled with his control all day, issuing five walks before departing in favor of reliever Tyler Voltaire with two out in the fourth.

Voltaire got out of the fourth by picking off Kingston’s Evan Dieter at second base.

But Voltaire immediately got into trouble in the next inning and Constance’s bases-clearing double put the Tigers ahead 7-2.

Anthony Manzi’s RBI single in the sixth cut Kingston’s advantage to 7-3, but the Tigers added another run in the bottom half of the inning for an 8-3 lead heading into the seventh.

The wild NFA seventh began with Joe Ponesse reaching on an error and the Goldbacks loaded the bases on hits from Martin and Dylan Iorlano.

Manzi lined a sharp single up the middle to score a run after the umpire declined his request to call time to make it 8-4. Jake Lanzer’s bloop to left field scored another and Nick Schmidt’s fielder’s choice grounder cut the deficit to 8-6.

But the rally ended with Ahearn’s ground out and the Goldbacks’ season was over.

The 2022 campaign didn’t match the 2021 season in which Newburgh captured its first sectional baseball title since 2005.

“We lost some key players, but the guys that came back picked up right where we left off,” Seabury said. “We had a little bit of a rollercoaster season, but I thought we were playing our better ball at the end.”

Martin, a junior second baseman, said he is looking forward to next season already.

“This one was a tough one, but we’ll be back next year and see them again,” Martin said. “We’ll remember this game and how it feels. We’ll just take this feeling through the whole season until we get to the playoffs and play our hearts out and hopefully have a better outcome.”

Manzi led the Goldbacks with two hits and two RBIs, while Reade added a single, a double and one RBI.