CARY, N.C. — The Southern New Hampshire baseball team started its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance with a bang by winning the Atlantic Regional championship and its opening game at the Division II College World Series.

Wednesday, the Penmen’s postseason run — and the best season in school history — came to an end with a whimper.

Still stinging from a late-inning loss to West Chester two nights earlier, coach Scott Loiseau’s team had nearly as many errors as hits Wednesday in a 6-0 loss to Minnesota State at the USA Baseball Training Complex.

“I don’t think our guys were tight. I don’t think they were nervous. We just didn’t play very good defensively,” Loiseau said after watching his team get shut out for the first time in 58 games this year. “They guys battled all season long.

“Some days you play well, some days you don’t. It was one of those days and it just happens to end our season. If this happens in April, we wouldn’t be talking about it right now.”

Because it happened on the next-to-last day of May, SNHU (43-15) will have an entire summer to reflect on both its success and the disappointing turn of events that left it short of its national championship goal.

Although the final blow came Wednesday at the hands of a Minnesota State team the Penmen beat in their CWS opener, the beginning of the end actually came Monday night when they imploded over the final two innings in a 13-7 loss to West Chester.

SNHU wasn’t the same team after closer Alex Powers failed to hold a one-run lead against the Rams, and the lethargy seemed to carry over into Wednesday. Things only got worse when the third-ranked Mavericks (50-11) jumped out early by scoring three runs on just two hits in their first two at bats.

“It’s tough to lose. It stinks. We went out there and played as hard as we could,” designated hitter Andy Lalli said. “We always have confidence in every game. We go after it hard. We knew we had a shot at it. We’ve come back before.”

This time, though, there was no rally.

Surprise starter Junior Mendez, who was ineffective in a similar role on Monday, did his best to keep his team in the game by allowing only one earned run through six gritty innings of work. But the way Minnesota pitcher Jason Hoppe was throwing, even that wasn’t enough to keep his team in the game.

Hoppe struck out 10 and scattered six hits in the workmanlike shutout.

“The kid on the mound did a really good job,” Loiseau said. “He mixed three pitches. I tip my cap.’’

The Penmen’s best scoring opportunities came in the fourth when it put runners on first and second with one out, and in the sixth, when third baseman James McGowan singled and leadoff man Brendan O’Brien walked to start the inning. Both rallies came to an abrupt end when the heart of the order couldn’t deliver the big hit and score the runs.

Whatever thoughts SNHU had of pulling the game out came to an end when Minnesota State scored its final two runs in the top of the eighth. It was anticlimactic finish that put a damper on an otherwise memorable week.