If you had asked him two weeks ago if his Memorial baseball team would be playing in the Class L semifinals, Don Menswar would have been more likely to laugh than nod. Yet that’s exactly where the No. 15 Crusaders ended up, facing third-seeded Goffstown at Nashua’s Holman Stadium on June 11.

And had it not been for an early missed opportunity, Menswar may very well have been preparing his team for the state title game.

Instead, Memorial found itself on the losing end of a 4-1 score.

With two outs and the bases loaded after a Kyle Morrill single in the first inning, a baserunning error at third base signaled a change in momentum. Two Memorial errors and two subsequent Goffstown runs in the bottom of the frame affirmed the shift.

“I told them after the game they have no right to hang their heads,” said Menswar. “You know, with beating a team like (No. 2) Keene, with beating a team like (No. 7 Pinkerton) and giving Goffstown all they wanted, I’m proud of these kids.

“They battled, but you know, against a team like Goffstown … we had (pitcher) Matt Gifford on the ropes in inning one. But they made the plays, and we didn’t.”

One person not surprised to see Memorial in the semis was Grizzlies coach Matt Benson. “The south end (of Manchester) always has good baseball players. Memorial is an outstanding … baseball school, and they’re notorious for that,” said Benson. “Those kids play baseball all summer, Sweeney Post is an outstanding program, and those kids, they know how to win. They know how to play tournament baseball. I could have easily seen them winning, no problem.”

Menswar said his players, at least until very recently, underachieved throughout 2008, and he noted next season may be an even greater challenge.

“We have six kids coming back,” said the manager. “The biggest message they have to get is you’ve got to scrap and battle every inning, and that’s what they learned in the playoffs that they didn’t in the regular season.”

There may have been no better example of how to conduct oneself on the field than Auburn’s Morrill, who sacrificed his high school pitching career to dedicate himself to solidifying the team’s defense as shortstop.

“You don’t replace a kid like Kyle,” said Menswar. “Kyle Morrill is a kid who as a sophomore came up for us and pitched two dynamite games for us and helped us win the tournament. He’s a class kid from a class family, and Keene State (College) is lucky to have him next season.”