When the Philadelphia Phillies clinched their ticket to the MLB World Series on October 27, Philadelphia sports fans brought new energy and connection to the city and to students in the community.
On November 5, the Phillies lost the final World Series game to the Houston Astros 4-1.
“I was just excited that we made it to the World Series,” junior Ava Mills said. “We were the underdogs and we held our own.”
The series ran six of the seven scheduled games, leaving the final record 4-2 in favor of the Houston Astros.
“When you think about how they were up in the series 2-1 and wound up losing, it’s kind of disappointing,” junior Ryan Ciuba said.
The team’s run to the World Series brought excitement to the community.
“I was really excited,” Ciuba said. “Philly loves the team. It’s the City of Brotherly Love.”
Now identifiable as ‘that song’ by many Phillies fans according to Choral Director Jon Timmons, “Dancing on my Own,” a song by Callum Scott, became the anthem for the team during their playoff run.
“[Souderton Advanced Choir] had the experience of being able to sing the song on live TV during the week of the [playoff] games,” Mills said.
According to Timmons, Souderton Advanced Choir prepared to sing on live television on short notice. The choir had limited time to learn the song for the performance days later.
“We made an arrangement and made some adjustments to [the song] to make it just about a one-minute snippet,” Timmons said.
Timmons feels like the experience connected music and sports in an inspiring and energetic way.
“I like that we were able to mix sports and music. We don’t really think of choral singing and sports as usually going together,” Timmons said. “But I thought that it was really fun to take what we do and also cheer on the Phillies at the same time.”
This was the first time the Phillies have made it to the World Series since 2009, ending a 13-year championship drought for the team. “It’s definitely something that I didn’t expect to see in my lifetime again,” junior Cam Nadolski said.
According to Nadolski, despite the Phillies lacking an offensive presence, the team had won one of three home games,
“We fell short at our at-bats,” Nadolski said. “But we will get them next year.”
According to Mills, designated hitter Bryce Harper “left his bat at home” for the final games of the series.
“We weren’t able to play as well offensively as we normally do,” Mills said. “We got bested by the Astros pitching in the last few games.”
Ciuba feels that the team had what it took to win and put up a good fight.
“They didn’t necessarily play sloppily, they just didn’t have enough to wind up winning,” Ciuba said.