It was the type of game a baseball coach dreads, but knows that, sooner or later, his team will play.

Unfortunately for the Moon Area High School squad, it had one of those games in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class AAA playoffs.

Coach Dom Santeufemio explained:

"We left too many runners stranded," he said of the 7-2 loss to Bellefonte at the White Township field near Indiana that ended the Tigers season.

"We hit three line drives at the center fielder that might have gone for extra bases on another day. We hit the ball hard but right at people all day. And our pitcher had a tough time hitting his spots. You coach or play the game long enough, you're going to get a game like that."

Santeufemio also noticed his players had something of a WPIAL championship hangover. He sensed it in the first-round PIAA contest against Perry Traditional Academy, which Moon won, 11-0, in five innings.

"It's hard to put your finger on but we just weren't as driven," he said of the loss to Bellefonte. "We were sort of the same way against Perry. I don't want to say we were satisfied [with winning the WPIAL title] but we didn't seem to have that same hungry attitude."

Moon defeated Chartiers Valley to win its first WPIAL baseball championship. But the slate is clean when the PIAA playoffs begin and Char Valley will play for the Class AAA title tomorrow in Altoona.

"We've been on the other side," he said. "We've won two state titles and we didn't win the [WPIAL] title either time. It's tough to win both in the same year."

That doesn't mean Moon didn't have a successful season. The Tigers finished 19-5 and made some history by winning the WPIAL's first-place trophy. And with the pitching Santeufemio has returning, Moon will probably take another run at the crown in 2010.

Starters Brad Schnelle and Mike Jeffreys will return along with Nick Grace and Brian Flannery. Flannery won seven games as a sophomore but only one this season because of injuries. Grace was coming off Tommy John surgery and is still going through the rehabilitation process.

"They say it take 20 months and it has been only 15 for Nick. He pitched a little for us when we went to Florida and the weather was warm but when we came back here to the cold things tightened up," Santeufemio said.

Although having four solid pitchers returning is nice -- "If you've got two strong starters, you're in pretty good shape to make the playoffs," Santeufemio said -- the Tigers will have to replace a big chunk of offense.

Phil Bondi, one of the WPIAL's top players, will take his skills to Division I Radford and second baseman Scott Liller hit .527 in the regular season.

"It's going to be tough because we relied on our bats this season," Santeufemio said. "You don't replace a player like Phil. He hit better than .430 for three years and is one of the top five or 10 in just about every career offensive category at the school."

That doesn't mean the offensive cupboard is empty. Sophomore Brett Hoffman had 33 RBIs this season and center fielder and leadoff hitter Zak Schmidt was a catalyst with an on-base percentage of better than .650. Still, five starting spots will have to be filled.

Santeufemio, who also manages the Moon American Legion team, hopes to identify some replacements this summer. He said a number of the high school squad's top players are playing for more high-profile teams this summer.

"That gives me a chance to play some of the younger guys [on the Legion team] to see what they can do," he said. "But, to be honest, I didn't even think about the Legion team until [the high school squad] was done. Now I'm going crazy to try and get things organized and ready to go."

Moon's Legion squad is scheduled to open the season at home this evening against C.I.T.

"The [Legion] season is supposed to end July 6 so we've got a month to play 22 games," Santeufemio said. "I've scheduled a couple double headers and we're going to be playing most nights, but that's OK."

Winning a WPIAL title makes it OK.