PORTLAND (AP) – Alice Evans and Grace Needleman will have to get a new date to the Cape Elizabeth High School spring prom.

The high school seniors had been hopeful that Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein would escort them after saying he’d try while chatting with them during a chance encounter on Sunday in Fort Myers, Fla.

The girls had gone to the Red Sox spring training complex with two handwritten signs, one that read: “Will you go to prom with me?” After Epstein took a break and talked to the girls, the potential of a prom date was written about in newspapers and featured on radio and TV, including ESPN.

It turns out that Epstein, 32, will not be taking Evans and Needleman to the May 12 prom, Glenn Geffner, vice president of media relations for the Red Sox, told the Portland Press Herald.

“Theo appreciates the support, but of course he will not be attending. We were all surprised to see the media coverage this good-natured exchange generated,” Geffner wrote in an e-mail Thursday.

The girls met Epstein while watching Red Sox spring training during a vacation with Needleman’s family.

When the girls talked to Epstein, he asked when the prom was. Flustered, they mistakenly said May 6.

Epstein mentioned the Red Sox were playing in Boston on May 6, and he would try to make it to the prom, Evans said.

After meeting Epstein, Evans and Needleman were waiting to get autographs from some Red Sox players when a sports columnist for the Boston Herald asked them about the encounter. He recounted what happened in his Monday column and the media attention took off from there.

It was all fun but the students never really expected Epstein to come to their prom.

“This all was taken in fun,” said Richard Needleman, Grace’s father. “These kids know he is not coming up here.”

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