If you're a baseball manager and you have to lose one of your top players, losing him to a major-league organization probably isn't the worst scenario.

Especially if you're Allegheny Athletics' manager Dave Hungerman.

The player Hungerman lost before the season even began was his son, Josh, a left-handed pitcher and first baseman, who signed with the Colorado Rockies' organization.

Josh Hungerman, who played collegiately at Division I Cleveland State University, was taken in the 17th round of last month's major league amateur baseball draft as a pitcher. He began his minor-league career last week with the Casper (Wyo.) Ghosts, a Rockies' rookie affiliate in the short-season Frontier League.

Since Josh Hungerman's father, Dave, is the general manager as well as the field manager of the Allegheny Athletics, a logical question might be: Is this the final year for the wooden-bat summer league team that plays in the nine-team Tri-State Collegiate League (for players younger than 23)?

According to Dave Hungerman, the answer is: "The A's are here to stay. We're going nowhere."

Dave Hungerman said not only will the team be back next year (it's affiliated with the McCandless Athletic Association), but that he intends to be back to manage it. The Athletics play their home games at North Allegheny High School.

The Allegheny Athletics are in their fifth year of competition. This is their fourth year as a member of the Tri-State Collegiate League.

The league consists of seven Ohio teams (three from Cleveland, two from Toledo and one each from Canton and Youngstown) and two Pittsburgh clubs -- the Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pandas, who play their home games at La Roche College.

The goal of the Athletics and the Pandas is to give area college baseball players a quality summer league in which to play where you can still stay home for the summer. Unlike some summer college leagues, it is not just geared for NCAA Division I players. Both the Atrhletics' and Pandas' rosters are dotted with Division I, II and III players.

Five of the Ohio opponents are close enough that Athletics and Pandas players return home after games. Games in Toledo (a five-hour trip) require overnight accommodations.

So far, not having Josh Hungerman, a mainstay on the club the past three seasons, hasn't been a problem for the Athletics from a win-loss standpoint. The A's had a winning record last year and own a winning mark this season, including a 3-0 mark in their first three games against the Pandas.

The first-place finisher in the Tri-State Collegiate League during the regular season receives an automatic berth to the 16-team National Amateur Baseball Federation Summer Collegiate World Series in Toledo.

Josh Hungerman, a North Allegheny grad who was a senior at Cleveland State this past spring, was selected by the Rockies after compiling a 5-6 pitching mark with a 4.60 ERA. He topped the seven-team Horizon League in strikeouts with 91 in 88 innings.

Hungerman gained first-team, all-league honors as a designated hitter after batting .345 (67 for 194) and leading Cleveland State (21-31, 12-13 in league) in home runs (11), RBIs (50), hits and runs (41).

Even without his son around, Dave Hungerman said he is excited about the future of the Tri-State Collegiate League, which is considering expanding to as many as 12 teams next season.