With seven seniors on the roster, six of them starters, Beaver Area High School baseball coach Bruce Herstine knew this had to be the year.

"We have about nobody returning," he said. "We have four guys who were starters coming back, that's about it."

Ah, but what a ride it was this season.

Beaver captured a WPIAL baseball title for the first time since 1983, winning the Class AA crown with a 4-3 victory against Bishop Canevin in the title game at Consol Energy Park. Manny Cutlip, who did everything well for the Bobcats, was the winning pitcher, stomping out a late rally by the Crusaders.

Unfortunately for Beaver, it wasn't on top of its game for the first round of the PIAA playoffs. The Bobcats lost to Bishop McCort of Johnstown, 6-2.

Beaver finished with an 18-5 record, including 13-1 in Section 1-AA.

"I'm real disappointed," Herstine said when asked if he thought his team should have done more in the PIAA playoffs. "I thought we were one of the better teams in the tournament.

"But when we were getting on the bus [to go play Bishop McCort] I told one of my assistants that we were not up for the game at all. You could just tell.

"It's tough coming back after winning [the WPIAL] title. Winning the [PIAA] is a bigger prize, but it was like we spent so much energy winning the WPIAL that we didn't have anything left."

Beaver was not the first WPIAL champion to have that happen to it. Herstine used West Allegheny, which won the WPIAL Class AAA title this year and last season, as an example.

"West A was probably the best team in the state this year and last year and it was beaten in the [PIAA] tournament both times," Herstine said.

Still, winning a WPIAL championship isn't a bad thing. Herstine just wishes Cutlip, who was 5-0 as a pitcher during the regular season and hit .689 with five home runs, was back for another year.

Cutlip, who had a number of Division I colleges interested in him for baseball, is headed to IUP and will play football.

"That's his passion," Herstine said. "He had schools like Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth and Temple interested in him for baseball and he didn't even want to talk to them.

"I asked his parents if they would consider keeping him around for another year, but they said he eats too much. For us, he's the type of player you get once every 10 years."

Cutlip was hardly a one-man show, however. Senior Alex George also had a hot bat as did center fielder Kevin McDanel and third baseman Eric Matsko. McDanel, George and Cutlip also tortured opposing pitchers when they reached base.

"I don't think any of those three were thrown out stealing a base until we reached the playoffs," Herstine said. "They probably had 45 steals between them ... that's a lot."

The other senior starters were J.T. Bennett in right field and Collin Burns at designated hitter. Tyler Pfender was the other senior on the roster.

"We thought we were going to be good when the season started," Herstine said. "We just didn't know we were going to be this good."

The returning starters next season will be Kris Roper at shortstop, Chris George at first base, Albert Torrence at second and Matt Green at catcher. Roper and Chris George will be counted on to lead the pitching staff.

"I have all the players come in and we talk one-on-one about what they need to do for us to win next year," Herstine said. "I told Chris George and Chris Roper they needed to improve their arm strength."

Even with just four returning regulars, Herstine expects the Bobcats to be competitive. He said the junior varsity finished in the 9-4, 9-5 range.

"We'll be competitive. The question is how competitive," he said.

"If a lot of the other teams also had a lot of guys graduate, we should be in the mix in the section. It will all depend on our pitching."