First-year manager Mark Sterkenberg has officially guided his Lower Macungie team to the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs, thanks in part to sweeping both games against rival Emmaus in the regular season.

The Mustangs completed the sweep with an 11-7 win over Emmaus this past week.

With the last week of the regular season here, Lower Macungie holds an 8-8 record with games remaining at Southern Lehigh (13-3) and Coplay (5-11).

Lower Macungie collected 15 hits in its win over Emmaus with Zach Fotta going 4-for-5 with a run scored and two RBIs. Andrew Miller (1-2) threw five innings to get the win, while Jared Miller moved from center field to the mound to throw two shutout innings and preserve the win.

"We're finding that we can play well against some of the better teams and we've been hitting the ball better, so maybe we're putting things together at just the right time," said Sterkenberg.

Jared Miller leads the team in hitting with a .387 average and a on-base percentage of .525 on the season.

Miller bats leadoff and has a team-high 13 runs scored on the season in the 11 games that he's played. Zach Fotta has been the big run producer for the Mustangs, with 10 RBI and a .379 average.

Andrew Mantone (.361) and Matt Boccella (.333) are also hitting over .300 for Lower Macungie this season and the Mustangs are hitting .269 as a team.

Among starting pitchers, Tyler Sterkenberg has a team low 4.20 ERA and is 3-0 on the season. Sterkenberg pitched a perfect ninth inning for the Lehigh Valley All-Star team in their 10-4 win over the Schuylkill Berks All-Star team last Monday at FirstEnergy Park in Reading.

Eric Woods has pitched primarily in relief this season and has done a nice job, posting a 4.31 ERA, while Fotta has a 3.50 ERA in a limited relief role for Lower Mac.

The Mustangs made it through a recent stretch of five games in five days that was created by rainouts earlier in the season. Going 3-2 over that tough stretch was a key for Lower Macungie, since they were stretched thin on pitchers.

"We needed all hands on deck for that," said Sterkenberg. "It wasn't easy to get through, but now that it's done, I think we've come through it pretty well."

As things stand now, Lower Macungie would earn the No. 6 seed and play Salisbury (10-5) as its first opponent in the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs. Salisbury took both games against Emmaus this season and could be considered one of the tougher teams to draw in the post-season thanks to a good combination of big bats and a couple of strong pitchers capable of shutting down opponents.