This year's Northampton Connie Mack team is merging with Lehigh Township's team for the 2014 season.

While Northampton was just 3-14 a year ago, Lehigh Township went 12-7 to finish seventh in the very competitive Lehigh Valley League. They eventually lost in heartbreaking fashion in an exciting series with Fullerton, which advanced the Ramblers to the state playoff tournament.

Playing under the Lehigh Township name, the team will be under the direction of first-year coach Tom Onusconich.

"We played some really good games," Onusconich said. "The games we lost we were just a few hits away from turning the game around. I would say our strength of the team is a good mix of pitching, defense and hitting. All around solid."

The team dropped their first game to Lehigh Bethlehem 13-0, which is also undefeated this season, but then blanked West Allentown 10-0. The squad also lost a close, 9-8 game to Palmerton and currently sits at 2-3 on the year as of late last week.

The team is made up of: Jared Angerman, Ian Arroyo, Mike Bodnar, Patrick Bodnar, Justin Bragg, Ian Csencsits, Mike Kovalchik, Nate Kranzley, Colin Marth, Tucker Muffley, Dave Rehrig, Kimane Ritter, Scott Ruch, Dom Santo, Kyle Serman, Scott Schmidt, Nate Straub and Joey Tocci.

"I think the biggest thing we need to work on is the same for most teams - just being smarter, knowing the situations and just keeping the fundamentals simple," Onusconich said. "This is my first year as a head coach so I try to keep them looking at one game at a time sometimes you can just think ahead of yourself."

While it was still a loss, Onusconich pointed to the Palmerton game as perhaps one they can build on. They trailed 7-2 at one point in that game.

"I was proud that they came back and fought it out until the end. The biggest thing I can say about this group is they are very fun and good to work with," Onusconich said.