In its opening matchups, the Lower Macungie Connie Mack baseball team seemed the pre-eminent contender for the league title. Lower Mac opened the season by dominating its first four opponents, scoring a cumulative total of 37 runs and blowing out two opponents, Catasauqua and Bangor, by 10-run margins.

Lower Mac owed its early success to its command behind the plate.

““To start, we’re hitting the ball pretty well, which is opposite of previous years,” said head coach Tim Hertzog. “We’re winning a lot of high-scoring games.”

The immediate burst of victories imbued the team with confidence as regular season heated up. Perhaps most satisfying was the win against Catasauqua, which came only a year after the Rough Riders shut out Lower Mac in the summer of 2016.

“They no-hit us last year,” said Coach Hertzog, “so it was kind of nice to get back at them.”

Despite the season’s auspicious beginning, Lower Mac has not fared nearly as well since then. The team dropped its next two games and as of June 24, Lower Mac stood at 7-6, 11th in the league standings with 12 teams making the postseason.

This drastic drop comes after the team remained in the top five for almost the entire first half of the regular season. With a few of games remaining and their heads just above the waterline, the players will have to reclaim their early dominance if they’re to stay alive.

Even in the face of recent struggles, Hertzog is determined to take his team back to the top of Connie Mack rankings.

“I’d like to make a run for the Lehigh Valley championship, and see what happens if we make it to states,” he said. “It’s just one step at a time.”

Nonetheless, the forthcoming battle to retain their spot in the tournament will be a trying one. In the forthcoming weeks, Lower Mac has yet to face league powerhouses South Parkland and Emmaus, both of whom will pose a daunting challenge. If his team is to make a resurgence in the standings, Hertzog believes his players will need to keep opponents’ runs to a minimum while still capitalizing on opportunities at the plate.

“We’ll have to tighten up our pitching, play better defense,” said Hertzog. “It’s going to be a struggle.”

The team has lost four of its last five matchups, and on three of these occasions, its opponents scored 12 or more runs.

Coach Hertzog also noted that his team is composed largely of younger players, a stark difference from the year prior. Despite their collective age, Lower Mac has no shortage of difference-makers on either side of the ball. The head coach especially commended catcher Shane Martrich and second baseman Sylis Alliston for outstanding performances in the first half of the season.

With a record just above .500 and a litany of key matchups remaining, Lower Mac will need to relocate the spark that propelled it to a 4-0 start.

As the season draws to a close, Lower Mac will face Northern Valley, Hellertown and Pen Argyl. If the Mustangs finish their season the same way they started it, they should have no difficulty climbing back to the top of the standings.