ZELIENOPLE — Wooden bats, a welcomed step up in competition ... an unwelcomed ending.

The Zelienople Post 474 American Legion baseball team accepts all of it.

Coming off the Butler County Colt League championship last summer, Zelienople could have joined the Butler County American Legion league this season.

Instead, the team opted to cross the border and play in the Beaver County legion league.

“They use wooden bats there and the kids wanted to try something different,” Zelienople manager Steve Nulph said. “They wanted to challenge themselves.”

At first, that challenge was more than they could handle.

Being a first-year entrant in the Beaver County circuit, Zelienople was not allowed to have any 19-year-old players. Its entire roster consisted of 16 and 17-year-olds.

And the team — despite having the majority of its players come from the solid Seneca Valley program — got off to a 1-11 start.

“We’re talking about a bunch of kids who just played Colt League suddenly going up against freshman college kids, in some cases,” assistant coach Ken Hall said. “That was quite a jump.

“Getting used to the wooden bats, facing better teams ... There was an adjustment period there.”

Eventually, that adjustment period ended.

Zelienople won four of its final six games to get into the league’s double-elimination tournament. Falling into the loser’s bracket, Zelienople defeated Beaver Falls, 14-3, and Ambridge, 5-4, to earn a shot against Hopewell in the loser’s bracket final.

The winner of that game would join once-beaten Blackhawk in representing the Beaver County league in the American Legion state tournament.

Zelienople took a 15-0 loss against Hopewell, however, getting no-hit in the process. It ended the season at 7-15.

“Nothing went right for us in that game,” catcher Brandon Nulph said. “We couldn’t throw any strikes, we didn’t hit, they scored a bunch of runs on passed balls.

“But, overall, we showed we can play in that league. We belong there. Next year, it will be our turn.”

Brandon Nulph said he was hitting .100 on the season going into July.

“Then I broke out of it. A bunch of us did,” he said. “We were facing quality pitching we weren’t used to seeing and trying to adjust to wooden bats. It took a while, bit we figured it out.”

Shortstop Zach Wilson was one of those players who spent much of the season trying to catch up to the competition.

“I probably hit close to .400 last year,” he said. “This year, I struggled to hit .250. It was completely different.

“A bunch of us had to switch positions from high school, too. I was a first baseman for Seneca Valley and moved to shortstop this summer. We started coming together toward the end of the year. Next year, we’ll show people we really can play baseball.”

Zelienople will bring back its entire team next summer.

The Butler County league dropped its affiliation with the state legion baseball program a few years ago.

“That’s another reason why these guys wanted to go over to Beaver,” Coach Nulph said. “They wanted a chance to move on and they almost got there.

“Most of the teams in this league are their respective high school teams and the legion coach is the high school coach. The same players stay together and it shows in the high quality of play.”

Hall was not surprised by the way the season went.

“We knew this league would be a wake-up call for these kids and it was,” he said. “But now they’re awake.

“And they can’t wait for next year.’’