EDENTON — In a season of firsts for the winningest team in Edenton Steamers history, the Steamers found themselves in another unique position Wednesday: They had to win.

For the entire regular season, that wasn’t the case. The Steamers won the first half of the North Division handily, then breezed to the second-half title as they won 10 more games than any other Coastal Plain League team.

But after Tuesday’s 7-4 loss to the Wilmington Sharks in Game 2 of a best-of-3 Petitt Cup semifinal series at Hicks Field, the Steamers had to win at home or this incredible season was over.

“It’s true, we really haven’t had to play any games that we had to win,” said Esterlin Paulino, who was to be the starting pitcher Wednesday as the Steamers battled for their playoff lives. “That’s because we’ve played so good all year, we haven’t had our backs to the wall.

“But we do now. I feel good about our chances, though.”

So did shortstop Tim Saunders.

“It’s baseball, everybody loses games,” he said. “But we’re not going to play any different than we have all year. We’ll play hard and do what we have to do to win. We don’t want to lose.”

It wasn’t like the top-seeded Steamers (47-12 overall, 3-1 playoffs) played poorly Tuesday. They just didn’t play well enough to keep a six-game winning streak and a 14-game home win streak going.

Edenton got behind 4-0 by the top of the fifth inning, but erupted for three runs in the bottom of the frame when Nathan Burns, Saunders and Brett Christopher drove in runs, then tied it at 4-4 in the sixth on a home run by Brian Blasik.

However, the seventh-seeded Sharks (32-29, 3-2) hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh by Kenny Bryant and Daniel Aldrich off two of the Steamers’ best relievers to take a 7-4 lead that stood up the rest of the way and disappointed a vocal crowd of 827.

Bryant hit a two-run shot off Dustin Quattrocchi and Aldrich teed off on his replacement, Jordan Egan, for his second homer of the game. Aldrich also had a two-run blast against starter Brock Hudgens in the fourth.

“We gave up some big fly balls in a yard where you can’t do that,” said Steamers coach Dirk Kinney. “We battled to get back into it, then we hang a breaking ball and get another one elevated and their guys did what they are supposed to do.

“Overall, we didn’t pitch badly, we just didn’t pitch well enough to win in this ballpark.”

Afterwards, Kinney had some advice for his dejected team.

“I told them. ‘If you don’t have short-term memory in this game, you’re not going to make it,’ “ he said. “ ‘We lost. It’s over. Now come back and win the next one.’

“I have no doubt our guys will play hard. I haven’t questioned their effort for 59 games and I don’t think there’s going to be any reason to think they won’t give it in the next game.

“Two of the best pitchers in the league will be going in that one. It should be good.”

Paulino, who was to match his 5-1 record and 2.56 ERA against the Sharks’ Mat Batts and his 3-3 record and 1.96 ERA in the game that will decide which team will advance to the championship round against the winner of the Forest City-Gastonia semifinal, was up for the challenge.

“I would have loved to have seen us win tonight, but I’m ready to pitch,” he said. “It is a little different when you are in this position, but you can’t let it enter your mind. You have to pitch the way you always pitch. You can’t change anything.”

In the weekly Perfect Game USA rankings of college summer league teams, the Steamers remained No. 1, but there were hints in the press release they wouldn’t stay on top if they don’t win the CPL title.

While their primary competition, the Hyannis Hawks of the Cape Cod League, dropped to No. 3 when they were eliminated from the playoffs in an upset, the release said:

“With Hyannis effectively eliminated from the chase for No. 1 and Edenton not proving as invincible as it was earlier in the season, it has opened the door for other contenders for the designation of the nation’s top summer-league team. The obvious beneficiary appears to be the Cal Ripken League’s Bethesda Big Train, which has already completed its 2011 season.

The Big Train (36-9) ran through the regular season in the Cal Ripken League and clinched its third straight league title with a playoff sweep. It moved from No. 3 a week ago to No. 2, supplanting Hyannis.”

Wilmington 7

Steamers 4