After a fierce storm moved through the Lehigh Valley Saturday, forcing the postponement of most of the day’s Lehigh Valley Legion games, Lower Macungie had to regroup on Sunday, the final day of the regular season, and play two games at different locations.

After a 7-2 win over North Parkland early in the afternoon, the team reassembled about 30 miles to the north to face Carbon County at Lehighton High School, where things didn’t go nearly as well with the Monarchs downing Lower Mac 12-2.

The loss on the road left coach Jeff Smith’s team at 8-10, but avoided having to win in a play-in game Wednesday to stay alive in the league playoffs. The Mustangs finished tied with both Emmaus and West Allentown in the standings, but because of tiebreakers they avoided the play-in scenario.

While sub-.500 season wouldn’t usually be one that would leave a manager very happy, Smith said before the loss that he was going to be happy with his team no matter what the outcome, as he looked at the big picture for his team, which started the season 2-7 and was written off early.

“The kids didn’t give up,” said Smith after the win over North Parkland. “They bought in. They kept swinging the bats and here we are. As to who we play, I know it sounds cliché, but it truly doesn’t matter who we play. They’re all talented teams up top, but I’m thrilled and the rest is all gravy to me.”

Lower Macungie will play third-seed Coplay (10-5-1) in the first round of the playoffs. Coplay, which includes many players from the Whitehall High School team that went to the PIAA championship game in spring, beat Lower Mac 5-3 and 10-5 during the regular season. Those two losses came just before the Mustangs went on their 6-3 dash to the end of the regular season.

“I think we’re a team that teams at the top are probably not looking forward to playing,” said Smith. “If we hit the ball, we have the pitching. We have Matty [Lanzone]. We’ve got [Adam] LeMaster and we’ve got [Joe] Marrero, and we have [Todd] Moxey, who we’ve hardly even used this season. We’ve got the arms to make some noise. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

Lanzone was masterful in the win over North Parkland, throwing a complete game and striking out nine batters. The team’s ace was quick to point out to Smith that he would be available to start the playoff opener on Thursday. Lanzone had somewhat of a bounce-back game after his only rough outing of the season in his last start against Emmaus.

“He doesn’t sweat that stuff,” said Smith. “He doesn’t care. He just takes care of business. That’s what he does. He’s been a workhorse for us this year, and in years gone by, so I can’t say enough about him.”

Smith knew from the start of the season that pitching was going to be the key to success, because his roster had a number of young players who hadn’t gotten much playing time during the high school season.

“We hadn’t seen pitching, because we’re young,” said Smith. “It was nobody’s fault. Our kids just hadn’t gotten reps and these kids started swinging. I knew Moxey was going to hit the ball, but the others all came along and they didn’t quit. That to me is everything. You would have never known that they were 2-7.”

Moxey handled the offense for Lower Macungie against North Parkland with two doubles and a triple, scoring two runs and driving in two. Over the weekend, Moxey was also named to the Lehigh Valley Legion All-Star team, which will play a team of Schuylkill-Berks All-Stars on July 11 at Reading’s FirstEnergy Field.