One bad hop.

One bad decision.

One bad inning, followed by another.

It all led to bad news for the Wyoming Area baseball team.

But one bad day against a very good Tunkhannock team in the semifinals of the District 2 Class 3A tournament didn’t diminish a great season for the Warriors.

Because even without a championship, they brought Wyoming Area baseball back to life.

“Definitely,” Wyoming Area infielder Chris Murphy said. “If you look at the past two years, we haven’t been as successful as we wanted to be.”

Success?

That used to be measured by how close the Warriors could come to pulling off an upset.

They finished 1-14 last year, after winding up 2-13 in 2008. The Warriors were easy outs in the District 2 tourney both seasons.

“We were a great five-inning team last year,” said Warriors coach Chick Andrewscavage, who took over Wyoming Area’s program a year ago.

But the Warriors’ aspirations took off, once they gained a little self-confidence.

They finished 11-6 this season.

They won two games in the district tournament.

And they gave second-seeded Tunkhannock a scare with a three-run rally for a 3-2 lead against overpowering pitcher Mike Papi before finally falling 13-3.

“Going into the season, the kids bought into what we were trying to do,” Andrewscavage said. “It was just a change in attitude. You come to a school like Wyoming Area, there are a lot of good athletes. It’s just a matter of playing ball aggressively, and knowing we have a chance everytime we go on the field.”

The Warriors had an opportunity to pull off a major district upset Wednesday.

Trailing 2-0 in the fourth inning, Murphy drilled an RBI double out of the eighth spot in the batting order. Then he showed some of that attacking nature Andrewscavage encourages by scoring from second on a two-run infield error to give Wyoming Area a 3-2 lead.

“We never gave up,” Murphy said.

That burning desire was evident all the way across the field, where it wasn’t difficult to notice how much Wyoming Area improved.

“Leaps and bounds,” Tunkhannock coach Gary Custer said. “It’s a very classy program. The coaching staff is exceptional. They’ve got things going in the right direction.”

That path to the top hit a few roadblocks midway through the game.

A wicked hop bounded off the outstretched glove of Warriors second baseman Randy McDermott, scoring one Tunkhannock run.

Andrewscavage didn’t score many points with Warriors fans when he removed starting pitcher Andre Harris, who limited Tunkhannock’s balanced lineup to a pair of hits over his three innings.

Especially when Tunkhannock erupted for five runs to take control of the game in the bottom of the fourth, then put it away with a six-spot in the fifth.

“It didn’t work out for us,” Andrewscavage said.

But an amazing turnaround turned out just fine for the Warriors.

“We’re very, very proud of them for what they did,” Andrewscavage said. “They took us to a new level.

“They showed who they were.”

More importantly, the Warriors showed who they weren’t. A program accustomed to playing the patsy suddenly isn’t such a doormat anymore.