For Lehigh-Bethlehem Connie Mack coach Keith Lehman and his team, things have worked out pretty well despite ending the season losing two of three games.

The team clinched the top seed in the Lehigh Valley playoffs with a 14-3 record, clinched a trip to the state tournament, and also gets over a week off to get ready for the start of the playoffs on July 8.

"We had a great season," Lehman said. "14-3 is a darn good year. Our goal was to make it to states and we achieved that with a game to go in the regular season."

All that despite a 4-3 loss to Catasauqua, a 16-4 win over West Allentown and ending with a 4-0 loss to North Parkland.

"It's probably not the way we wanted to end," Lehman said. "But they were great games."

Lehigh-Bethlehem was right in it until the seventh inning against Catty, and against North Parkland, with a top seed already clinched, Lehman shifted the goals a bit to make sure all 17 members of the team got an at bat.

"They're still highly motivated," Lehman said of his team. "They took the losses in stride. Now we have to step up a little bit.

"Everyone has contributed from either a hit or a defensive play. They've played solid, loose baseball all year, but especially during the back half of the season."

Lehigh-Bethlehem's season ended well before most teams in the league. Lehman attributes it to quickly rescheduling games after rainouts. Several teams had a handful of games to play as of late last week, with the season ending July 3 and the playoffs starting after the July 4 holiday weekend.

"I think it's a huge advantage," Lehman said. "It's a long, short season with 17 games in about six weeks.

"I'm giving them a couple of days off and then we start back up hard on Sunday (June 30). We get to heal up some arms, including the coaches, and we'll probably get about 4-5 days of practice."

As of late last week, and because of early Press deadlines due to the holiday, Lehigh-Bethlehem's opponent in the Lehigh Valley championship is yet to be determined. Nazareth is the only team that could finish 14-3, but Lehigh-Bethlehem already defeated them this year for the tiebreaker.

"It really is a group effort," Lehman said. "One day players A, B and C does a phenomenal job and the next day it's players D, E and F. It's a great team effort."

The remaining eight teams will play in a best-of-three series with the winners advancing to states along with Lehigh-Bethlehem and the number-two seed.

Nazareth only had three losses but still had four games to play according to the Connie Mack Web site. Should it win out, it would clinch the number-two seed. Stroudsburg had four losses but still had two games to play in the season.

Catty and North Parkland's seasons are over and they finished at 12-5.

Aside from that, the top-10 playoff teams seem set with the exception of seeding as of Monday. Lehigh-Bethlehem, Catty, N. Parkland, Stroudsburg, Pocono East, Lehigh Twp., Nazareth, Fullerton, Bangor and Pen Argyl look to round out the top-10 teams.