Just hours after awakening from a sleep overflowing with golden dreams, deflated Serra Catholic baseball players slowly walked off the field at Altoona's Blair County Ballpark, sporting silver medals around their necks.

In hopes of raising the heads and morale of his underclassmen-filled squad shortly after falling to Camp Hill in the PIAA Class A championship game, Serra coach Brian Dzurenda chose to speak to them about a much different type of silver.

A silver lining.

"Everybody looked up," Dzurenda said. "The kids truly believe they're going to be back next year. It'll be a great feat, but there's not a kid on the team that doesn't think we can make it back."

Serra (23-3) saw its terrific season come to an end Friday with a 7-3 defeat to District 3 champion Camp Hill (23-2), which became the fifth school to win back-to-back PIAA titles.

After the Eagles played Camp Hill to a 3-3 draw through six innings, the Lions scored four runs in the top of the seventh to secure the victory, while reinforcing Dzurenda's pregame belief that his squad was about to face the best team they had played this season.

"It was the only time this year I stepped out on the field and thought the other team might be better than us. And they proved they were," he said.

Serra, though, proved it could hang with a Camp Hill team that had outscored its previous three PIAA opponents by a whopping 26-5, shutting out two of those foes. The Lions' only defeats came to Class AAAA and Class AAA squads.

What made Serra's hard-nosed effort and sensational season -- the Eagles won their first WPIAL championship -- standout was the point Dzurenda conveyed to his players afterwards: This loss might sting, but you'll be better for it next season.

"If we had won, there might have been some complacency. It gives the kids something to work for," he said.

Serra Catholic loses just one senior -- Brandon Sandusky -- to graduation and returns all nine starters.

Included in the bevy of returnees are the Girman brothers, junior Oliver and freshman Alain, who sparked the Eagles throughout the season. Oliver Girman tossed a complete game and had four RBIs in a 7-1 victory in the WPIAL championship against Carmichaels. Alain Girman, who Dzurenda called the best freshman in the WPIAL, hit a home run and drove in two runs in a dramatic 5-4 victory against Clarion in the PIAA semifinals. Also back are sophomore Chris Miller and junior Tyler Kugler.

"They'll have another shot [at winning a PIAA title]," Dzurenda said. "Everybody will be a little stronger and will be a little more game savvy."

Camp Hill got a Oliver Girman-esque effort from senior Matt Spiegel, who picked up the title-game victory for the second consecutive season while going 3 for 4 with four RBIs.

Despite the loss, Dzurenda said the effort his team displayed over the course of the season, particularly in the playoffs, was top notch.

"I told them before the playoffs: 'Make sure you empty your tank because you don't want to look back 20 years from now and say what if.' And everybody gave everything they had, and I couldn't have asked for more than that," said Dzurenda, a former Serra player.

An undefeated fall-ball squad last autumn had Dzurenda thinking his team was capable of big things -- "You start to get the feeling we can beat anybody" -- and while some thought the Eagles might have been a year or two away from achieving what they did, they showed that youth wasn't too high a hurdle.

"Maybe they overachieved. Maybe they were ahead of schedule. But truly, from game one, I thought we had an outside chance to do some special things," Dzurenda said.

Those chances look even better next season.

And, possibly, those dreams are lined with gold.