SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- The disappointment was palpable and, perhaps most prodding, was that the feeling was familiar.

For the second consecutive season, the Latrobe High School softball team players walked off Robb Field at Shippensburg University with silver medals draped around their necks -- falling shy of attaining their ultimate goal, a PIAA Class AAAA championship.

This time, it was Hatboro-Horsham that received gold medals as the young ladies from Latrobe had to stand and watch the victory ceremony.

"They were the better team today," Latrobe coach Bob Kovalcin said in the aftermath of Hatboro-Horsham's 3-0 victory. "They deserved to win."

There was a definitive span of time in which Latrobe saw its golden dreams turn to silver last Friday. It was in the sixth inning when Latrobe's dream of a title evaporated with a two-out rally.

That's when normally unflappable Latrobe senior pitcher Alexa Bryson was dented for the first time in the postseason. Going into the sixth inning, she had failed to yield a run in the 56 previous playoff innings.

But Hatboro-Horsham strung some hits together and, just like that, the Hatters were ahead, for good, 3-0.

It was a time in which not supporting Bryson in the playoffs finally caught up with the Wildcats.

Three times in their postseason run, Latrobe had to squeeze out 1-0 wins, almost failing to get to the opposing pitcher while Bryson continually mowed down hitters.

Kovalcin understood that couldn't go on forever, but he was impressed with how Bryson never let that get to her through Latrobe's run. She just took the ball, time and again, and threw strike after strike.

"We were lucky to this point in the playoffs and scored the runs we needed," Kovalcin said, just after his team received their silver medals. "But today, that caught up with us. ... I am sure that Alexa was aware of everything, and that she probably was a little frustrated that we were not scoring runs to support her, but she never let it get to her. She just went out there and kept doing her job."

What happened was that Hatboro-Horsham pitcher Amanda Sadowl was a little better that day, tossing a complete game three-hitter. Sadowl's signature herky-jerky motion seemed to have the Latrobe hitters baffled for large portions of the game, even though Kovalcin refused to acknowledge that it was a factor.

"[Sadowl's motion] didn't throw us off, we just didn't hit the ball when we had chances to," he said. "I just think that we were swinging at bad pitches, in the beginning, we were swinging at a whole lot of bad pitches. I questioned the umpire a couple of times in the early innings and I asked him, 'Are we swinging at strikes?' and the answer was, 'No.'

"So, I think we need to work on that."

The most frustrating part is that there isn't an opportunity to work on it, because the season is over, the campaign complete -- and Latrobe came away, yet again, just shy of earning that gold medal.