After starting the season 8-1, Lower Macungie's Lehigh Valley Legion Baseball team has run into some tough times. After having a player deemed ineligible, Lower Mac had four wins erased, not to mention that Jeff Moore, one of LM's stronger players, is now no longer a member of the team. Add to that the presence of senior week and there was no real surprise to the fact that the team looked flat against rival Emmaus and dropped a 3-0 decision.

"They were flat, they didn't come to play and they just got their (butt) whooped by a better team, that's all there is to it," said Lower Mac manager Jeff Smith. "They're big boys and their minds are elsewhere. That's not an excuse, because Emmaus deserved to win the game and they beat us fair and square."

The league ruled Moore ineligible, reportedly because he hadn't played last season. The team argued that since Lower Macungie didn't have a team last season, he should have been exempt from that rule, but the league didn't see it that way. There was no immediate explanation why the ruling came down in the middle of the season, rather than having been caught prior to the start of play.

Smith had no comment on the situation and refused to use it as an excuse for why his team came out with a sub-par performance against their closest rival, Emmaus.

"The first thing that I said to them was, 'how does this feel?' And hats off to those kids [Emmaus], because they came to play," said Smith.

The top eight teams in the league, based on winning percentage, qualify for playoffs and even with the loss of those four games, Lower Macungie is still in good shape for a playoff spot, but it did drop them in the standings and the loss to Emmaus (5-7) didn't help.

"I told them, '4-2 is a lot different than 8-2,'" said Smith. "Sometimes, you need a wake-up call and hopefully, this is it. It's time to knuckle down; we need to make up some wins."

Lower Macungie managed just three hits off Emmaus' starter Tyler Kish, who threw a complete game. Two of the hits came in the seventh inning as Lower Macungie looked to rally, only to be shut down by Kish.

Tyler Sweeney led off with a double and one out later, Lukas Wieder reached on an infield single. Kish then got a little pop-up back to the mound and struck out his high school teammate Teja Venigalla to end the game and preserve the shutout.

In the fifth, Emmaus also had to shut down a rally from Lower Macungie, who had runners on first and second with one out. Pinch-hitter Eric Sipp lined a shot that seemed destined for left field, but shortstop Eric Cichocki made a diving grab to record the second out. Kish then got a groundball back to the mound to work out of the inning.

Lower Macungie came back on Monday to pound Salisbury 10-0 behind a one-hitter from Matt Lanzone, with Sipp going 3-for-4.

The schedule has Lower Macungie at Coplay on Thursday and with home games against Northern Valley on Saturday and South Parkland on Sunday.