Teams like to go into the postseason on a hot streak. For Lower Macungie, that's not necessarily the case as the Mustangs finished the season having lost three of their last four games. Of course, two of those games were against North Parkland and South Parkland, the top two teams in the league.

North Parkland finished the season as the regular season champions with a 17-1 record. South Parkland finished at 14-4, but was the only team to defeat the Buffaloes during the regular season.

Lower Mac also lost to Northern Valley (6-12) before beating Southern Lehigh (10-7) to finish the regular season on a high note. During their streak of three straight losses, there was a streak of 26 straight innings that went by without the Mustangs scoring a run. That streak was snapped when they erupted for four runs in the fifth against Southern Lehigh.

Offense is going to be the key for the Mustangs. The pitching has been pretty solid, with Trey Hinkle leading the way with a 0.44 ERA over 32 innings this season and Andrew Miller posting a 1.27 ERA over 22 innings of work. Matt Lanzone started two games during the regular season, posting a 1.17 ERA and will likely be pressed into duty in the playoffs since games can sometimes stack up.

In addition to his performance on the mound, Hinkle also led the team at the plate with a .421 average and was the only hitter with double-digits in RBIs, finishing the season with 15 runs batted in. Todd Moxie hit .364 and all-star Joel Bartoni hit .360 to help boost the offense, but overall, Lower Macungie hit just .288 as a team this season.

In the middle of the season, Lower Macungie had four wins erased from its record when it had a player ruled ineligible and had each of the four wins that he appeared in erased from their record. As it turns out, the controversial ruling didn't really affect the team at all, since it would have finished third in the league either way. In some ways, it might have brought the team together.

"I think that we just became more determined to win," said Bartoni. "We didn't think that it was right and we wanted to show that we were still capable of winning."

In the first round of the playoffs, Lower Macungie will be facing Emmaus, who it split its two regular season games against, winning the first game 6-0 and losing the second 3-0. In the second game, a number of Lower Macungie players were coming off senior week and the team was admittedly flat both in the field and at the plate, according to coach Jeff Smith. That game also came shortly after the ineligible player ruling.

The two rivals will play Thursday at 5:45 p.m. at Church Lane Park.

With its regular season championship, North Parkland is already guaranteed a spot in the regional tournament, which begins July 18. The winner of the league tournament will also gain a bid into regionals. Should North Parkland also win the tournament, the runner-up will get a spot in the regional tournament.