Right now, there's pain.

Bishop Chatard baseball coach Mike Harmon watched his team loseto Yorktown 2-1 in eight innings in a regional championship game Tuesday, but when he can change his perspective to see the past and look to the future, there's a new feeling.

"This is the first time in 10 years we won a sectional. Now they've got a little taste of it and can work even harder in the offseason and come back hungry," said Harmon, who didn't feel like his players recognized their potential in losing to Whiteland in sectionals last year. "I think they believe a little bit now."

The Trojans let a four-run lead slip away last season to a Whiteland team that reached the semistate finals, but there was no questioning the determination the team demonstrated Tuesday night.

It lacked a dominant No. 1 starter, so Harmon built one. Tuesday, he started Michael Zimmerman and he pitched 41/3 innings, only allowing a home run to Aaron Clevenger. Then Harmon brought in Billy White for relief with a runner on second in the fifth, and he surrendered just one run on three hits in the eighth inning.

Offensively, the Trojans turned a Yorktown error into a run in the fifth as Hunter Groves reached on a miscue by shortstop Zach Tanner, Jeremy Bolt bunted pinch runner Alex Engle to second, and freshman No. 9 hitter T.J. Agnew drove in the run with a double to left-center. Bishop Chatard loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but couldn't push across a run. It had runners on first and second in the eighth, but Yorktown's Cal Bowling got out of both jams.

"It was a good baseball game," Harmon said. "(Yorktown) had a little momentum (in the eighth), but I thought getting out of the bases-loaded jam got us a little bit of it back since it could have gone to 5-1 or 6-1, and that's tough to come back on against Bowling."

Bishop Chatard (18-12) was scuffling two-thirds of the way through the season at 10-9 and looked to be on the verge of another close loss May 11 when Providence, then 14-1, scored in the bottom of the seventh to send the game to extra innings. But the Trojans scored six times in the eighth to take a 14-8 victory.

"We were staring at 10-10 and another tough luck loss," Harmon said. "But they came back with a little hop in their step the next practice. It took another week or two to get everybody healthy, but from that game on we went 8-2. If we lose that game, we might be looking at a .500 season. It did . . . wonders for (the players) and gave them a taste of, 'We can get a close one to go our way.' "

That lesson should carry over to next season as Bishop Chatard loses just two seniors -- No. 8 designated hitter Bolt and reserve pitcher/catcher Caleb Decker.

The other 18 players on the playoff roster are expected to return, led by pitchers Zimmerman and White, who also starts at second base; first baseman John Dury; catcher Scott Mourey; and leadoff hitter/third baseman Bobby Akin.

"Neither of those (seniors) ever said a negative word," Harmon said. "A lot of times they might not have played as much as they wanted but every day they came and went to work."