ITHACA, N.Y. -- When it was through, after Binghamton's second baseman calmly flipped a short throw over to first to end the game, Cornell head softball coach Dick Blood shook hands with the umpires a final time, ran to the end of the handshake line and congratulated the winning team. He brought his squad out into rightfield, sat them down and delivered the message of the day as he had nearly 1,000 other times. This time, there were tears.

He then ran to the dugout and grabbed his rake, walked out to the pitcher's circle and finished the job. The last out was never the end, and it still isn't.

Cornell softball closed out the storied 20-year career of Dick Blood the only way it could and should end - with teachable moments and good softball.

Though the wins and losses weren't the only things that mattered, he signed more winning lineup cards than any softball coach in Ivy League history and posted more triumphs than any other Big Red coach had ever compiled in one sport. His final games went down as a 6-0 win in game one on Tuesday afternoon against the Bearcats, with a 9-3 loss in the finale at Niemand*Robison Field - a field he saw built, maintained, renovated and expanded over two decades.

Right to the end of the game two loss, Blood continued coaching with purpose. Hard working reserves Olivia Bundschuh and Zoe Hernandez each earned an at bat and field time. Seniors Sophie Giaquinto and Clare Feely got a chance to leave the field on their own terms. Sophomore Olivia May, who went 3-for-3 with several sparkling plays at third base in game one, earned the second start. For Blood, it was always about what was earned. He was fond of saying he didn't make the lineup - the players did. He just filled out the card.

And 623 times in 972 games he filled out that lineup card for the winning team. Five times his teams won the Ivy League title. All that came across his path left with the greatest of respect for the man - the same respect he afforded others and the game.

In the end, May's 3-for-3 day at the plate and Emily Weinberg's 2-for-4 afternoon with two RBI backed freshman Maddie Orcutt's two-hit shutout in the opener. In the end, Binghamton's five-run second inning was too big a hole to climb out of in game two. But just as importantly, in the seventh inning of game 972, Taylor Goodin, who earlier in the game hit her team-leading fourth home run of the season, hit the ball solidly to deep centerfield. Freshman Rebecca Kubena, who opened the inning with a leadoff triple, ran home and beat the throw to cut a seven-run deficit to six. One pitch later, the game was over.

Except that the Big Red had executed what was in front of them. They made the right softball play, and that run, so meaningless to most, wouldn't be to Dick Blood. When the last batter, the same one that went 3-for-3 and earned the start in game two, ran out that grounder to second to end the game, he could walk off knowing he taught the kids the right way to play.

It was always about the game, and the kids. It was about teaching and learning, and winning the right way and losing with dignity and class. It was never about one game or one season, and that's why two decades of alumnae returning to honor him on Saturday meant so much. He changed, improved and brightened the lives of more people than can be counted.

Dick Blood's legacy is now woven into the fabric of Cornell University, Cornell athletics and the program he built. That is nowehere near the end.