CARMEL >> In time, the sting will subside and the focus will turn to next spring.

In the moment, Carmel was coming to grips that its magical spring — with a roster that featured just two seniors in the starting lineup — abruptly came to a halt.

“You’re glad it hurts because it shows you care,” Carmel baseball coach Mike Kelly said. “You have to realize we had a great run. We fell a little short. It hurts. But that’s life. That’s what is so great about sports. It has a parallel to life and the lessons it teaches.”

The Padres left the potential tying and winning runs on base Saturday, falling 6-5 to Rancho Cotate of Rohnert Park in the Northern California Division III semifinals Friday.

Central Coast Section Division III champions for the second time in three years, Carmel had its six-game winning streak snapped, finishing the season 21-11.

Just three seniors are on the Padres 19-man roster, as seven starters and all three starting pitchers are coming back next season.

“This is a young team with a big upside,” Kelly said. “We have all our pitching coming back. We have a couple of holes to plug. But I think we’ll be fine. Today was a huge game, and we had a freshman on the mound throwing to a freshman.”

Kelly was speaking of freshman hurler Kenny Sanchez, who after giving up a two-run homer in the first inning, set down 10 of the next 11 hitters he faced.

“He’s a harder-working kid,” Kelly said. “He takes his craft seriously and works at it.”

During the Padres’ postseason run, the pitching has been filthy, as the staff has posted three shutouts, allowing just two runs leading up to Saturday’s semifinal.

Sanchez, whose brother pitches at Loyola Marymount, tossed five shutout innings in the Padres’ win over Christopher in the section semifinals.

On the heels of a 9-0 win over Morro Bay last Tuesday in the NorCal opener, Carmel turned to hot-hitting Matt Maxon, who ripped a two-run double in the fourth inning to put them up 4-2, a lead that was stretched to three after five innings.

Maxon, who came into the game 7-for-10 in the playoffs, drove in eight runs in the postseason with a homer and three stolen bases. The Stanford-bound junior pitcher also tossed seven innings in the CCS title game with seven strikeouts.

A run-scoring single by Kaleb Herro erased a two-run deficit in the third inning for Carmel, as an error enabled both Bo Lewis and Skyler Brown to score.

The Padres, however, had no answer at the plate for Jeff Derammelaere, as he got No. 3 seed Rancho Catate back in the game in the sixth with a two-run double, highlighting a four-run uprising.

Derammelaere, who was intentionally walked in the seventh, also homered in the first inning, driving in four runs for the Lions.

Carmel put runners at first and third with one out in the seventh, but Rancho Cotate’s defense made a play to get the lead runner trying to score, then induced a strikeout to end the game.

“I’m sure when summer rolls around and the sting wears off, they’ll look back and realize the job they did,” Kelly said. “I just told them let’s keep working hard to exceed.”