WASHINGTON — Sometimes it’s the journey and sometimes it’s the destination.

For the Cranberry Township Federation 14 baseball team, it was a little of both.

The team finished 1-2 in its trip to the PONY World Series this week, but according to manager Ron Bondo, it meant more having the Series at what is basically PONY’s home site.

“Last year, we went to California (for the 13-year-old series) and it was certainly about baseball, but being here this year made it more special,” said Bondo, who hails from nearby Burgettstown.

’It was at the headquarters of PONY baseball and it was the 60th anniversary ... the field was nicer than California. They had the Champions game and breakfast. They had opening ceremonies in California, too, but this was bigger.

“This was the pinnacle of PONY League baseball. Thursday night, even after we lost, we felt we matched up well against Indiana,” Bondo added.

Cranberry Township lost to Lafayette (Ind.) 5-2 in the elimination game Thursday after dropping a 10-0 decision to Laredo, Tex., Tuesday. They opened the Series with an 11-0 blanking of host Washington last Saturday.

Team members are John Davis, Ryan Senka, Ryan Donnelly, Ross Bondo, Joel Shaffer, Matt Ptak, Ryan Maurer, Troy Martin, Brad Hensler, Patrick O’Connor and Mason DeHart.

Ron Bondo’s staff included Ray Hensler, Tom Shaffer, Mark Maurer and Thom Helisek.

Against Indiana, Maurer had an RBI double to make it 5-1 and Cranberry Township added a second run on a pair of Lafayette errors. Walter Talcott, however, proved to be a bit much on the hill, striking out 10 and allowing just two runs on four hits in six innings.

“I was optimistic we could move on and get another whack at Laredo, to have the opportunity to see what we’re made of,” Bondo said.

“I looked at the scoreboard after the game and tried to take everything in. I wanted to etch in my mind what it meant to be there,” Bondo added.

Seeing how the team has reached its respective PONY League World Series championships the past two summers, Bondo and his teams have seen first-hand the quality of baseball in these finals.

“I think our guys are very appreciative,” Bondo noted. “They’re really a great group of guys. They’re becoming young men and not boys anymore. They’re all good students, never in any trouble.”

“Hats off to Laredo and Lafayette. We didn’t experience that kind of result ... We rarely see teams that would exploit our pitching the way they did.

“Every mistake, they made us pay for. It just goes to show you the level of play. These are good players, tenacious players. Everyone wants to win badly,” Bondo added.