Entering Tuesday's regular season finale, the Bears knew that they had a tough task ahead of them against the No. 15 East Central Warriors on Sophomore Night. And despite putting up a fight, they could not get the offensive consistency they needed, falling 7-4 in Game 1, and 8-4 in Game 2.
 
"I thought that our guys played pretty hard all day and we played pretty solid but we got beat by a really good team," Southwest head coach Jack Edmonson said. "We had a couple of situations where if the ball bounced a different way it may have been a different game."
 
The Bears (23-26, 13-15) had a good performance offensively in Game 1 when it came to hitting the ball as Southwest posted 11 hits, three of which came from Hunter Harrell while Christian Kell and Marcus Jackson each had two.
 
The offense got into rhythm early as Jackson led off with a double and later touched home when Connor McHenry singled to center. Later in the inning Colson Thompson drew a bases-loaded walk putting the Bears up 2-0.
 
Southwest starter Myles Green held the Warriors in check through the first couple of innings but East Central rallied in the third. The visitors plated three runs to take a one-run lead. The Bears could not respond in the third before the Warriors added one more to their lead in the fourth on an RBI double.
 
Southwest inched closer in the bottom half of the inning when Harrell singled to right bringing Brett Boutwell home, making it a 4-3 game.
 
That score stood until the seventh when the Warriors made it a 5-3 game on a sacrifice fly. Southwest found itself in a three-run hole in the eighth following another sac fly pushing the Warrior lead to 6-3.
 
Both teams traded runs in the bottom of the eighth and top of the ninth innings producing eventual final.
 
Green, Garrison Shows and Cole Tillman combined to give up seven runs (all earned) and seven walks while striking out four.
 
Braiden Jones got the nod in Game 2 and unfortunately it was a short outing for the sophomore as an injury in the second inning cut his time on the mound short. 

The Warriors pushed a run across in the first before putting the Bears down 4-0 in the second following a home run and a sacrifice fly.
 
The deficit later grew to 8-0 in the third but the Bears showed fight and determination trying to battle back. Their hard work resulted in runs in the third when Jackson singled to center scoring Matthew Latino and Braxton Thoms making it an 8-2 game. Jackson's hit continued his school record of consecutive games reaching base safely pushing the new mark to 31 games.
 
Southwest inched closer in the fifth after Tyler Otts scored on a passed ball and Jones hit a sacrifice fly cutting the Warrior lead in half at 8-4. Unfortunately for the Bears that was the closest they would come for the remainder of the contest as the Warriors later preserved the win.
 
In addition to Jones, John Austin Ricks, Caiden Necaise, Bradley Whitaker, Dawsan Drennan and Matthew Bienvenu all logged time on the mound.
 
Offensively, the Bears were led by Thoms who had two hits and two runs scored.
 
The Bears await results from later this week to determine playoff seeding.