South Parkland finished just one game behind regular season champion Coplay-Fullerton in the Lehigh Valley Legion standings, but the Trojans had their shot at first place right down to the final day of the season.

The two teams met last Friday to complete a suspended game from earlier in the year and then play a full game to wrap up the schedule. South Parkland (13-5) was only able to split the two games, leaving it just shy of first place and the number-two seed for this week’s legion playoffs.

Trojan head coach Tom Kahn admits that his team has had the right approach and being regular season champions wouldn’t have really changed their approach going into the postseason, but it was a goal that Kahn and his players all wanted to reach.

“To me, it’s just a matter of competition,” said Kahn. “We’re in a league. They keep score. They put it in the newspaper and there’s standings and all that. I wanted to finish first. If we’re driving home, me and you, I want to beat you there. I want to finish first. I’m a competitive guy. My kids are competitive and it’s just the competition, that’s why they keep score, you try to win. So that’s the way I look at it.”

Had the Trojans won both games against Coplay-Fullerton, the two teams would have had to play an extra game to determine the regular season champion, which would have affected the pitching plans for both teams heading into the playoffs. South Parkland is deep enough that it could have handled the extra game.

Even though the Trojans finished second, setting up a meeting with seventh-seed Emmaus in the first round of the playoffs, Kahn believes his team is in a good position for the postseason.

“We’re playing pretty well,” said Kahn after a recent 12-0 win over Lower Macungie. “We like our team. We like our chances. Hopefully, we have all our guys available. If we can get them there, we have our pitching lined up, we have a deep lineup. I like our chances, I really do.”

The Trojans go into the playoffs on a four-game win streak and having won seven of their last eight games to give them momentum. A key was when the high school season ended, allowing South Parkland to get their full complement of players. Once everybody was together and got on the same page, the team was able to kick into a higher gear for the rest of the season.

Now, as players start to hit a bit of a wall because of the long high school season followed immediately by the Legion schedule, Kahn believes his team’s depth will help it.

“We have probably 11 or 12 guys on this team who could probably be in the starting lineup and we have strong pitching, and again, a lot of guys who can throw for us, so that’s going to be important,” said Kahn. “On the other hand, it’s been a long year, and guys are hot and tired. Guys need a day off or they want to play, but want to be in the DH spot, so they only have to hit. So we have to change things around a lot.”

South Parkland and Emmaus split their two regular season games, with the Trojans winning 9-6 just two days after suffering a 6-3 loss at home to Emmaus. It’s been an up-and-down season for Emmaus, which won just two of its final six games.