7/2/19
In his five years as head coach of the Lower Macungie legion baseball team, Jeff Smith has never been one to panic.
Even despite a slow 1-4 start to this, his sixth season, Smith knew eventually that once his team was at full strength that things would turn for the better.
Boy have they.
With mostly a full lineup intact, Lower Mac put together an impressive four-game in seven-day stretch last week in the Lehigh Valley Legion League as they went a perfect 4-0 after playing some of its best baseball of the Summer.
“A great week for our boys,” said Smith, following his his team’s most recent win, a 5-2 victory over Carbon on Sunday. “Like I said to the boys the other day, it’s a new half of baseball . We went 2-6 in the first and now we’ll try to go 6-2 in the second. We’re off to a 4-0 start. The bats have come alive.”
Have they ever.
After scoring a total of just 19 runs through its first eight games, Lower Mac’s offense erupted this past week scoring 42 runs in its last four games, an average 10.2 per game.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I know what I have in front of me and I know there abilities,” said Smith.
The week began last Monday with an impressive 14-0 rout of second-place North Parkland at Orefield Middle School, followed by wins over Coplay (9-8), rival Emmaus (14-4) and Carbon (5-2).
Heading into yesterdays’ action, center fielder/first baseman Brandon Robinson was leading the team in hitting with a .400 average (8-for-20), followed by shortstop Ryan Kasye (.375, 12-for-32) and left fielder Nick Rodriguez (.316, 6-for-19). Outfielder/relief pitcher Jaime Hamilton has been arguably the team’s biggest surprise batting nearly .300 (.286, 4-for-14).
That offense and run support was plenty for the team’s pitching staff led by left-hander Braden Waller who went 2-0 during the week. Waller, who shined as a sophomore on the high school team, tossed a one-hitter and struck out nine in five innings of work in the team’s win over North Parkland, and then, despite being under the weather, went out on Sunday against Carbon and gutted out a complete-game effort, giving up just a pair of runs while striking out 10.
Lower Mac is now 7-6 on the season after picking up their fifth-straight win on Monday night, a 16-2 rout at Northern Valley, and currently sits in third place. They’ll close out their regular-season this week a road game at Allentown (Tuesday) and then tentatively host the same Allentown team in a makeup game (Saturday). Lower Mac will also pay a visit to league-leading South Parkland (Friday).
South Parkland, the two-time defending champs, has been the top team all season and is still currently undefeated at 10-0. Rival North Parkland is next at 9-4, followed by Lower Mac, Northern Valley (6-6), Salisbury (5-6-1), Carbon (6-7), Coplay (4-6-1), Emmaus (4-8) and Allentown (2-10). The top eight teams will qualify for the playoffs which begin on July 10.
EMMAUS STRUGGLES WITH 1-3 WEEK …
While Lower Mac continues red-hot, its rival Emmaus struggled last week dropping all three of its contests by wide margins.
First-year head coach Ryan Schaffer’s young team gave up an incredible 39 runs, falling to Allentown (14-8), North Parkland (11-2) and Lower Mac (14-4).
Pitching continues to problematic for the Hornets, along with one bad inning in games.
“Tough is probably not a strong enough word,” said Schaffer when talking about the struggles of his staff. “It’s been the most innovative season as far as pitching as I’ve ever had. “
“I’ve got some outfielders throwing innings, my second catcher throwing some innings and doing a good job. Just not everyday pitchers that can get in there and throw some good off-speed stuff and keep hitters off balance like they should.”
Southpaw Dylan Lehman was projected to be the staff ace but is loss for the season with an injury. Another lefty, Addison Holtzhafer, just returned to action last week after suffering a concussion.
Despite the absences of those two, Emmaus has still gotten some good innings out of first-year player Ross Braxmeier who started the season 2-0 before dropping his last two decisions.
Austin McEllroy provided a big boost to the team last night in his second start of the season as he allowed just one run and struck out nine in a complete-game effort in a 6-1 win over Salisbury. He also homered and doubled in the win as Emmaus completed the season-series sweep over Salisbury.
Following last night’s win, Emmaus still has four games remaining this week – all at home at Community Park. They’ll host South Parkland (Tuesday), play a doubleheader against Northern Valley (Saturday) and then close out the regular-season with Coplay (Sunday).
Emmaus 6, Salisbury 1 (Played Monday, July 1 @ Salisbury)
Em – 302 000 1 – 6-7-5
Sal – 000 010 0 – 1-6-1
Austin McEllroy (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 9 K) and Zane Cook.
Tim Schware (2), Quinn Warmkessel (3), William Rodriguez (5), Hayden Kuhns (6).
WP – McEllroy (1-0), L – Warmkessel
Em – McEllroy HR, 2B; Brendon Ward 2 RBIs
Lower Mac 16, Northern Valley 2 (Played Monday, July 1 @ Northern Valley)
Lower Mac – 005 047 – 16-14-0
No. Valley – 200 000 – 2-4-1
Ryan Kasye (4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 5 K), Vince Viola (2 IP, 1 H, 3 K) and Shane Martrich.
Eric Nothstein, Chris Lucykanish (5), Daulton Lorah (6)
WP – Kasye (1-0), LP – Nothstein
LM – Kasye 3 hits, 3 RBIs; Brian Horoshko 2 hits, 3 RBI; Joel Freeman 3 RBIs; Brandon Robinson 2 hits
Lower Mac 5, Carbon 2 (Played Sunday, June 30 @ Church Lane Park)
Carbon – 020 000 0 – 2-8-0
Lower Mac – 030 020 x – 5-8-3
James Lordi (5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 BB, 2 K), Jake Taras (1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K) and Ian Hubbard.
Braden Waller (7 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 10 K) and Jadon Diaz
WP – Waller (2-0), LP – Lordi
LM – Jaime Hamilton 2 hits, RBI; Braden Waller 2 hits
Lower Mac 14, Emmaus 4 (Played Thursday, June 27 @ Church Lane Park)
Emmaus – 000 400 – 4-10-2
Low Mac- 000 2(10)2 – 14-13-1
Ross Braxmeier (4 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 2 K), Addison Holtzhafer (1 2/3 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 7 BB, 2 K) and John Cherhit
Ian Hertzog (4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 3 K), Vince Viola (2 IP, 3 H, 1 BB) and Shane Martrich.
WP – Viola (1-1), Braxmeier (2-2)
LM – Brandon Robinson 3 hits, 4 RBI; Jaime Hamilton 2 hits, 3 RBI; Braden Waller 2 hits, 2 RBI;
Em – Corby Bennett, Steve Doddy, Matt Madigan and Colin Schaffer all had 2 hits