Lower Macungie was one of four teams in the Lehigh Valley Legion League to finish the season at 9-9. All four teams – Lower Mac, Emmaus, Northern Valley and West Allentown – also finished their schedules at 1-1 against the others, leaving the final seeding up to a coin toss, which will determine the fourth through seventh seedings for the playoffs.

With that scenario, Lower Macungie will play South Parkland, North Parkland or one of the other teams that finished 9-9 during the regular season.

Coplay-Fullerton will come in as the top seed by virtue of winning the regular season championship and finishing with a 14-4 record. South Parkland (13-5) will be seeded second, with North Parkland (11-7) seeded third.

The eighth spot was determined by a play-in game Tuesday between Carbon County and Southern Lehigh, who both finished the season at 7-11. That game was played after Press deadline. The tournament is scheduled to get into full swing Wednesday.

Pitching is always a key component for the postseason and Lower Macungie manager Jeff Smith believes his team should be in good shape on the mound, even though it has lost one of its top starters in Todd Moxey, who is dealing with a sore arm and won’t be pitching again this season.

For now, Moxey (2-0, 2.19 in three starts) has served as the team’s designated hitter to keep his bat in the lineup, but Smith is hoping he could be playing defensively at some point.

“We have to align our pitching properly,” said Smith. “We’ve spent a good part of the season having some kids available who might be able to help us, but I believe we’ll have them for the playoffs and that’s going to change things.

“If you have the right guy on the mound, the guys behind them respond and I think we’ll be OK. It’s Legion baseball and you’re not sure who’s showing up sometimes. Kids work and they have vacations. It’s something that every team has to deal with.”

Lower Macungie pitchers posted a combined 2.61 ERA on the season.

Another important factor for the playoffs is defense, which has been an issue for Lower Macungie throughout the season.

The Church Lane Field, which is the home field for Lower Macungie, is arguably the worst playing surface in the league and is known for not providing reliable bounces on groundballs.

While Smith acknowledges that both teams have to play on the field, he believes some of his players have become a little gun-shy of fielding groundballs because of the unreliable surface.

“Errors have been a huge problem for us this year, and this field doesn’t help, but that goes for the opposing team, too,” said Smith. “When you can’t trust the field, it’s hard for me to get angry at someone with some of the bounces you get on this infield, especially at third base and shortstop, but both teams have to play on it.”

As for momentum, Lower Macungie spent most of the season on an up-and-down slide of wins and losses, having never won more than two in a row, nor lost more than two in a row, and each of those mini-streaks only happened one time.

Lower Macungie can look to the fact that with the exception of North Parkland, it has beaten everybody in the playoffs at least once this season. The Buffaloes took both meetings with Lower Macungie during the regular season

Lower Mac was also competitive in the games that it lost, losing most by just a couple runs, with the exception of a 12-0 drubbing by South Parkland last week in a game where they made six errors and simply didn’t play well against a good team.

“I think the kids took it in stride and realized it was just one of those nights,” said Smith. “We were short on players, but that’s not an excuse. We just didn’t have it.

“Everything they hit was hit in the holes and we made six errors, which is going to kill you every time. We have not been out of a game all season, so that was a first for us.”