TRENTON – When Altoona closer Daniel Moskos blew the season’s final pitch past Matt Cusick’s bat, making the Curve 5-2 winners and first-time Eastern League champions, it merely made official what had seemed inevitable since the fourth inning.

With each bat that was kicked, slammed, tossed or otherwise discarded in frustration, it became painfully clear that this, despite mountains of individual and team success, was simply not the Thunder’s year.

The fourth frame, when Altoona took the lead for good, was when the ball started slowly rolling downhill for Trenton.

With nobody out and runners on second and third as a result of a walk and an error by first baseman Marcos Vechionacci, Altoona’s Jim Negrych rifled a ball up the middle that struck starter Manny Banuelos flush in the neck, just below the right side of his chin.

The ball was hit so hard that it ricocheted past shortstop Luis Nunez, who was moving toward second base to try to make a play, and into shallow left, allowing both runners to scamper home.

The Curve tacked on three more runs the rest of the way, while Trenton, which held a 1-0 edge when the inning started, added only a Damon Sublett solo blast in the seventh to its total.

While the Thunder were in their clubhouse packing their belongings and preparing for an offseason that’s sure to be filled, for a while at least, with what ifs, the Curve’s joyful noise was still echoing throughout the bowels of Waterfront Park.

For their unofficial captain, catcher Austin Romine, those sounds, and the sights that preceded them, were sickening.

“I hate losing. I absolutely hate losing,” he said. “There’s nothing worse than seeing them dogpile on my field.”

Afterward, manager Tony Franklin told his club that it should capture this feeling, remember it and use it as motivation as they go forth and advance within their respective careers.

“We didn’t produce when the chips were down. What we’ll do is use that as a learning experience,” the skipper said, “because it’s going to happen again, and when you’re in this time of year, vying for championships, you’ve got to be at the top of your game.”

That lack of production in key situations to which Franklin referred was easily the hallmark of the series for the Thunder, who, after the way they ran through the bullying pitching of New Hampshire in the first round, seemed a good a bet to win the whole thing.

With runners in scoring position, the Thunder were just 9-for-37 over the final games, including a putrid 1-for-14 during the two home contests. That lone hit came last night, when Dan Brewer’s RBI single got them on the board in the third inning.

Their work on defense wasn’t particularly good, either.

Trenton made six errors over the four games, compared to just 97 over the 142 contests of the regular season. That total was good for second best in the Eastern League.

Now, with 2010 in the books, all that’s left for the team is to decompress and try to learn from the mistakes and use them as fuel for next year, a task that now, says Justin Snyder, seems mighty difficult.

“I don’t know, man. It’s going to be a while,” Snyder said. “Especially after getting up 1-0 and think you had the upper hand, then just coming to our place and just shoving it. It’s going to be a bitter taste for a while, but in the long run it definitely is going to be a learning experience.”

TRENTON — Just when he thought his season was over, the rain dragged Andrew Brackman back in.

Last night’s washout — the first at home all season — means Brackman would be called upon to pitch a potential fifth game, which would be played on Sunday at 1:05 at Waterfront Park.

After he pitched five innings in relief of Andy Pettitte on Tuesday, the team told Brackman he could go ahead and shut it down for the rest of year, with a few days of charting as his only remaining work.

Yesterday, however, with the weather forecast looking gloomy, those plans changed abruptly.

“I was told the day after I pitched ‘Shut it down, you’re done,’” he recalled. “Then I was told to show up here at 7:00 (p.m.) to go in the stands and chart. I got a phone call at 3:00 that said to come up here and throw a bullpen just in case they need me in Game 5.”

He looked strong on Tuesday, and has been that for last month or so. In fact, since Aug. 11, Brackman’s ERA of 0.82 is tied for tops in the league.

Who, you ask, has been his equal in that span? Why it’s Altoona’s Rudy Owens, who it just so happens was approved late last night to oppose Brackman should the series go to Game 5.

Knowing the circumstance, it would be fair for one to assume that the deciding game of a championship series would be the biggest pressure point of the big man’s career to date.

Not so.

Brackman points to Game 1 of the 2005 Atlantic Coast Conference, when he struck out five in seven innings against the Miami Hurricanes. This, of course, came just two months after he joined the baseball team.

Of course, Brackman also had some fairly big moments on the basketball court, where he spent a good portion of his college athletic career.

“Oh yeah, the Sweet 16 was probably the biggest,” he said. “I played in front of more people and everything.”

He didn’t perform terribly well against that night, when his N.C. State Wolfpack faced the Wisconsin Badgers. That aside, he still has the utmost confidence in himself should the Thunder need him with a championship on the line.

“I want to be there for Game 5,” he said, before reminding reporters that, no matter how it shakes down, a title is the ultimate goal. “Hopefully my teammates can come through and we can win a championship.”

Now that Game 3 has been postponed, here are the new dates and times for the rest of the series:

Game 3: Tonight, Adam Warren vs. Justin Wilson, 7:05 p.m.

Game 4: Tomorrow, Manny Banuelos vs. Tony Watson, 7:05 p.m.

Game 5: Sunday, Andrew Brackman vs. Rudy Owens, 1:05 p.m.