After seeing their playoff hopes vanish when they dropped a doubleheader to the Road City Explorers on Monday, the Surge were basically playing for pride when they closed out their season against the Explorers at the Petrova Avenue Field.

Fresh off clinching a berth the Empire Professional Baseball League postseason on Monday, Road City took control early and never let up on the way to a 13-3 victory over the Surge.

Just a day before starting a three-game series against Road City, Saranac Lake had been riding high and was in the driver’s seat toward a playoff berth after taking four of six games from the league-leading Plattsburgh Thunderbirds.

Two wins over Road City may have given Saranac Lake the edge it needed to keep their season going, but instead, the Explorers were the team celebrating an upcoming trip to the playoffs after a three-game sweep of the Surge that extended their winning streak to eight.

Jesse Russo of the Surge swings at a pitch during the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game at Petrova Avenue against the Road City Explorers. The 22-year-old drove a pitch in the same at-bat over the right field fence to record one of two Saranac Lake home runs in the game. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

In Tuesday’s regular-season finale for both teams, the Explorers plated three runs in their first at-bat and never let up. They owned a 5-0 edge heading into the fourth, tacked on three more runs in the fifth and then scored three more times in the top of the seventh to lead 11-0.

While everything seemed to go the Explorers way early, the scenario was just the opposite for the Surge, who didn’t get send a runner across the plate until the bottom of the eighth while facing a 12-0 deficit. On offense, Saranac Lake’s batters hit into three double plays, and in the field, Surge pitchers hit four Road City batters and gave up a total of 16 hits in the game. Saranac Lake finished with six hits, but struggled for most of the game, managing to generate just three hits against Explorers starting pitcher Ryan Adams.

The Surge finally got on the scoreboard on their fourth hit of the game, a solo home run by Jesse Russo in the bottom of the eighth.

The Explorers got that run back in the top of the ninth to go up 13-1. Stepping up to the plate for the final time this season, the Surge put on one last show, when designated hitter Will Ramos launched his team’s second home run of the game. Catcher Tyler Hill also scored earlier in the inning, reaching on a single and eventually sliding safely home on a wild pitch.

The Surge ended their season with a 16-19 mark.

“We knew we needed to win two out of three to get in, we wanted to win all three,” said Ramos, a 26-year-old Surge outfielder from Glastonbury, Connecticut. “We played really hard. The first game was a really close game up until the later innings, some metal errors kind of took us out of it, and then I think we were trying a little too hard and it kind of backfired on us. We fought hard and really wanted to make the playoffs for the people out here.”

Joey Molina, the Road City manager, said losing five of six games to the Surge in a series earlier this month may have been the turning point of his team’s season. The Explorers walked away from those games with a 6-10 record, but then went on a 14-4 run to wrap up their regular-season schedule at 20-14.

“I gotta to say, honestly, they woke up a sleeping dog of a team,” Molina said. “We thought we were on a high horse coming into that series. They humbled us real good, and from there, we just caught fire. The hitters are hot right now, and once you’re hot it becomes a virus; everybody catches it. Today, literally everybody got a hit

“That team (the Surge), they’re not a walk in the park,” Molina continued. “They have pitchers over there that give us trouble. We’ve been grinding, we’ve made adjustments, we’ve adapted well and here we are heading to the postseason. Now, it’s let’s show the league who we are, show the league what team’s ready for it.”

Following the loss, players on the Surge and their manager Ken Matsuzaka headed to the stands where they shook hands and thanked the fans who adopted them as the home team for the past month and a half.

“I loved being on this team,” Ramos said. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect when we first came up here. It’s a small town and I didn’t think the people would come out and support us the way they did, but every game there were a lot of people here. I can tell you from myself to all the other guys on the team and the manager, and all the guys in the Empire League, who run the league, we really, really appreciate it.

“I’m just going home, train, try to get picked up by the higher leagues,” Ramos added. “If that doesn’t happen, I’ll keep training, come back next year and keep grinding.”

Although the faces on the Surge players showed it Tuesday, and Matsuzaka said his team’s playoff run was over even before Tuesday’s season finale, Jerry Gonzalez, the CEO of the league, told team members they had a slim chance of moving on — about 1 percent. The only way that could happen would be for the Puerto Rico Islanders to lose their last eight games, which includes a season-ending four-game series against the New York Bucks, who have won just twice this season.