After going 9-9 in the regular season, the Lower Macungie Lightning hoped to pull off some surprises in the Lehigh Valley Legion Tournament. Unfortunately for the Lightning, it was shut out by Salisbury 5-0 in its tournament opener and was beat up by Coplay in a 15-5 loss that eliminated Lower Mac from the double-elimination tournament.

Salisbury wound up going to the tournament championship game, but lost to North Parkland 6-5. Coplay picked up another tournament win against Northern Valley, but was then beaten by North Parkland in the semifinals.

Lower Mac managed just four hits off two Salisbury pitchers, including its ace, Nic Ampietro, who threw five shutout innings against Lehigh Valley and allowed just two hits, issuing no walks and striking out three in the game.

Tyler Sterkenberg started for Lower Macungie and had one of those days where he couldn't find the plate. Sterkenberg walked nine hitters in 3 1/3 innings, a tough ending to what was an all-star season. Andrew Miller came in and pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and was able to keep Salisbury off the board.

Sterkenberg didn't pitch in the loss to Coplay, but contributed at the plate with a home run in his only official at bat.

Zach Fotta collected two hits and was retired only on a hard-hit line drive to first base in the first inning. Luini Camilo reached base twice on errors, helping to mount the only real rally that Lower Macungie had in the third inning. The inning started with Jesus Camilo reaching on a base hit. One out later, Luini Camilo was safe on a groundball that was misplayed by the Salisbury first baseman. Ampietro came back to strike out the next two hitters and end the threat without any damage.

"Behind North Parkland, they have the best pitching staff and they hit," said Lower Mac manager Mark Sterkenberg. "We were in this thing. I know some of our guys didn't really believe it and were kind of hanging their heads when we got down 3-0, but I really thought we had a shot through the whole game."

Lower Macungie looked to have something going in the top of the seventh against Evan Kulig, who followed Ampietro on the mound. The Lightning had runners on first and second with one out, but Kulig got his second double-play groundball in as many innings to end the threat and the game.

"Nobody wants to be a .500 team," said Sterkenberg of his first year at the helm of Lower Macungie. "I thought we had a couple games that we gave away, but for the most part, I'm happy with how things went for us and we'll look to be better next year."