The roster of the Diamond Dawgs team in the Western Pennsylvania Elite Baseball League was anything but average.

Yet the summer league team comprising mostly players from WPIAL Class AAA champion Moon and WPIAL Class AAAA runners-up Pine-Richland was hovering around .500 for most of the summer.

Through 13 games the Diamond Dawgs were 7-6 and mired in the second tier of teams in the Elite League.

"The coaches sat us down and had a talk," Diamond Dawgs second basemen Eric "Iggy" Jutca said. "They told us we need to turn this thing around and that we are way better than a .500 team."

Mirroring the results of the Moon and Pine-Richland regular season, the Diamond Dawgs got hot to close out the regular season, winning four of five games. In the WPIAL, Moon also won four of five games to finish the regular season and Pine-Richland closed the regular season on a 9-1 run.

The Diamond Dawgs did not win the Elite League regular-season title, finishing in a tie for third, but the Moon and Pine-Richland players know firsthand that missing out on a regular-season title does not mean the postseason cannot be a success.

The three Pine-Richland Rams on the Diamond Dawgs -- pitchers Phil Morrissette, Chris Kosty and catcher Ron Perirish -- helped turn a second-place finish in the section to a trip to the WPIAL title game and the PIAA quarterfinals.

The six Moon Tigers -- infielders Phil Bondi, Brett Hoffman, Dom DeAngelis and pitchers Brad Schnelle, Brian Flannery and Nick Grace -- also played on a high school team that finished second in the section but won a WPIAL title and also reached the PIAA quarterfinals.

North Allegheny rising senior Pat Bradley was also on the Diamond Dawgs. Bradley helped North Allegheny to a WPIAL title this past spring.

"We had a ton of talent, obviously, having players from Moon, NA and Pine-Richland, all three had made state playoff runs," Diamond Dawgs coach Ray Antonelli said.

"We knew we had all the talent with these kids and the success they had and more importantly the confidence they brought as a group to the team."

After getting hot at the end of the regular season, the Diamond Dawgs made quick work in the playoffs, getting through three consecutive best-of-three series in two games each. They swept the South Hills Merchants with 11-2 and 5-4 victories.

Against North Allegheny the Diamond Dawgs won a game by forfeit and also took a 5-4 decision. In the championship series, the Diamond Dawgs finished off Seneca Valley in one day sweeping a doubleheader Saturday, 6-4 and 5-1.

"These guys are winners from top to bottom," Antonelli said. "These kids are willing to work before games and in early workouts. It is not too much of a hassle to get them motivated."

Jutca had one of the strongest summers on the team. A Bishop Canevin graduate and Washington, Pa., native, he hit in the three hole during his second year with the team. Jutca will attend St. Bonaventure in the fall to play baseball.

Hoffman and Bondi filled the same role for the Dawgs they did on the WPIAL champion Moon team. They rotated playing third base and shortstop and hit in either the four or five spot in the batting lineup. Hampton graduate Scott Brady was a key contributor hitting leadoff and starting in center field.

On the pitching front, Antonelli relied on five arms for most of the summer. The Diamond Dawgs pitching rotation was made up of Bradley, Kosty, Schnelle, Grace and Seneca Valley graduate Matt Parnes.

Last summer was admittedly filled with disappointment for the Diamond Dawgs as they never started to click and were eliminated in the semifinals. This year, with nearly the same roster, it was an entirely different story.

"After the WPIAL title, we were just expecting to win [the Elite League title]," Bondi said.

"With all these guys from different schools there was good competition between the team but your teammates are your teammates and there were no problems. It was the same thing as high school."

For the Moon players it ended up being like high school in more ways than one.