LAPLACE — St. Charles Catholic coach Wayne Stein said he knew the 2016 baseball team would be special.

He knew it last July when the school’s American Legion team, Townsend Homes, not only got to the Southeast Louisiana Regional Tournament for the first time in school history, but won the darned thing.

He knew it in January when the players reconvened to begin their 2016 campaign and brought that winning attitude with them.

He knew it Saturday when his players dripped sweat and tears as they begrudgingly accepted the Class 2A state runner-up trophy following a heart-breaking 3-1 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas in Sulphur.

They also reminded him a few times in between.

Stein said this was a special group of players, including 11 seniors who had been together since their elementary school days and a bunch of underclassmen who did everything they could to help.

“It started with our seniors, but there also were so many guys that were just part of the team, that don’t ever play, that had that team-first, selfless attitude,” Stein said. “That was the biggest difference. You know, it’s not always the most talented team — and I’m not saying we didn’t have talent because we did — but these guys had played together for a long time. They just jelled so well.”

With such cohesiveness, Stein noted there was no marquee player on this team, no star among the Comets. There were threats throughout the lineup, each equally capable of coming through in the clutch. One day it was Lloyd Nash, the next it could be Justin Ory or Dane Authement or Brady Newman or Nick Scioneaux or Zach Weber or Justin Loupe.

All of them also could play stellar defense. The Comets turned a pair of 6-4-3 double plays Friday against Riverside — Ory to Weber to Scioneaux.

Stein also had a “committee” of pitchers, each with solid arms.

“The only thing I think we lacked was a dominant arm,” Stein said. “We had guys who could go out there and get the job done.”

It was senior Zach Roussel who got the nod over Brennan Gilberti Friday, and he delivered a masterful performance on just 70 pitches to help the Comets dispatch Riverside 3-0. Roussel held the Rebels to three hits and retired the final 12 batters on 31 pitches.

“He did everything we asked him to do,” Stein said. “We asked him to throw inside, he threw inside. We asked him to put it two inches off the plate, he put it two inches off the plate. We felt confident in him.”

The hard part was going from that game to the next, Stein said.

“The tough part is, you have a week to prepare for all these opponents, then you’ve got 24 hours to prepare for somebody that’s the biggest game of the year,” Stein said. “It’s tough to turn the page like that. I was worried that we would kind of feel like we had played our state championship game that day and that was it. I really didn’t see that, though. I thought we played St. Thomas Aquinas the next day. ”

Gilberti got the Saturday start over Evan Pfister and pitched “well enough to win,” according to Stein. Gilbert allowed five hits, walked three, one intentionally, `and struck out one.

The Comets just couldn’t get past the Falcons and their pitcher, Alex Egan. The crafty right-handed sophomore held St. Charles to five hits and struck out eight.

He also got the batters to pop up nine times, leaving runners in scoring position in the third and the sixth innings.

“The difference was, when it came down to getting a hit in a clutch situation, they did it and we didn’t,” Stein said.

Now Stein is trying to remind his players that this was, by all accounts, an incredible season despite how it ended.

The Comets finished 29-9, were co-district champions with Riverside Academy and the No. 2 seed in the bracket.

“I don’t have any regrets,” Stein said. “We started on the 27th of January and we played on the last possible day you could play. We won 29 games. We were one of the last four teams playing (at the State Tournament). It’s not easy to get there.”

Indeed, former Comets coach Paul Waguespack often told the story of how his St. Charles Boromeo team (the predecessor to the current school) made it to the finals in 1977 then did not return until 1998. Since then, the Comets have made it seven times, advancing to the final six times, but never taking home a title.

This was the first time under Stein, who took over the team in 2012, but he was an assistant on the teams that went in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

“You’ve got 11 kids that you spend more time with than your own family,” Stein said shortly after the game.

Rather, he tried to say it as his emotions and finality of the loss began to sink in.

“I’m proud of them. They got us back here. We have a good program. I’d rather have four runner-up trophies than none and say we never got there. We’re not going to compromise our values and the things we do just to win one.”