As it turned out, when the Emmaus and Lower Macungie Lehigh Valley Legion rosters were set for the 2017 season, Lower Macungie got much of the younger talent. The Mustangs did get some quality pitching, including Matt Lanzone, who was the ace of the Emmaus varsity staff this past season. They also got senior Todd Moxey, who can contribute both at the plate and on the mound, and first baseman/pitcher Adam LeMaster.

That wealth of pitching has been a key for Lower Macungie as it continue to work its way through the season. The team split a pair of games on Sunday with Emmaus, leaving Lower Macungie at 5-9 on the season.

In Sunday’s opener, Lanzone wasn’t as dominating as he has been throughout much of the season, allowing eight hits and three earned runs, five total, through five innings of work. Emmaus scored four runs in Lanzone’s last inning and then held on as Lower Macungie rallied late in the game, but came up short in a 6-5 loss.

The game ended with Moxey on second after his one-out double drove in one run. After Moxey’s double, a sacrifice fly by Jake Hahn made it 6-5, but there were two outs in the inning. Emmaus pitcher Zach Schrader was able to get the final out and preserve the win.

In game two, Emmaus came out hitting, with a four-run second to make it 6-0 heading to the bottom of the inning. Lower Macungie then chipped away and wound up coming all the way back for a 7-6 win.

LeMaster started for Lower Mac and hung in after the rough start to shut down Emmaus over his final three innings. Moxey came on and threw two perfect innings to get the win when Lower Macungie scored in four straight innings, and plated the winning run in the bottom of the seventh on a hit from Ryan Kayse.

“We’re a pretty young team,” said coach Jeff Smith between games of the doubleheader. “In some ways though, that helps us because we’re not supposed to do too much, so there isn’t really a lot of pressure. We have good pitching, which is always important and as the younger guys get used to the grind of playing so much. We could surprise people. We could be one of those teams that you don’t want to play come playoff time.”

In the win over Emmaus, Kayse not only delivered the winning hit, but contributed with two other hits in the game, while Robert Roman finished the game 5-for-5.

While Lower Macungie is just 5-9 on the season, the Lehigh Valley Legion recently announced that all 10 teams will make the playoffs this season. The decision was prompted by the late arrival of players from Whitehall High School, which went to the state championship game in a couple weeks ago. Not having those players meant that the Coplay team had to postpone most of its early-season games, resulting in a glut of late-season games for teams. The disruption to the schedule made it difficult for some teams to have many off days.

“That’s going to help our young players,” said Smith. “The more experience they get now, the better prepared they’ll be for the next high school season and the better it will be for them. I’ve seen these guys get better and better as we’ve gone on and with the pitching that we have, you can’t count us out.”

As evidence of the progression of his young hitters, Smith pointed out that his team has scored 32 runs in its last four games.

“They’re getting there and they’re a good group of kids,” said Smith. “Now, we just have to see how far we can go.”