Heading into Monday, Salisbury's postseason dreams were still up in the air despite finishing the regular season last Thursday.

While the Falcons (5-12) entered the beginning of the week in ninth place in an eight-team playoff picture, there was still hope. Northern Valley (6-11-1) and Fullerton (5-10-2), the seventh and eighth teams in the playoff race, have one game remaining on their schedules. That battle against each other gave the Falcons a glimmer of hope to be playing in a one-game playoff for one of the two final playoff spots should the chips fall in place.

Fortunately for the Falcons, things did go their way. Salisbury faced Northern Valley on Tuesday with the winner earning a playoff spot. The loser still had a chance against Fullerton on Wednesday, with the winner earning the last and final seed.

"It's hard to get consistency sometimes in the summer," Falcon manager Chris Rapp said. "I had a couple of guys on vacation or college tours. The first couple of weeks we had just about everyone there every game, but after that I was missing a lot of guys for different reasons. When you're missing a third of your lineup some games it hurts.

"There were some teams that just beat us. Our hitting wasn't as consistent as I would have liked it to be."

While Salisbury's chances at making the playoffs looked bleak toward the end of the season, the Falcons didn't give up in the final weeks. A 5-2 win over Southern Lehigh nearly two weeks ago kept Salisbury alive, and a 9-1 win over Coplay in the season finale gave the tem even more hope.

But in the end, it was that inconsistency, mainly on the defensive side, that kept the Falcons from an easy road to the postseason.

"I think the pitching did better than anticipated," Rapp said. "I think the defense let us down a little bit more. And it was collective, it wasn't one person. Sometimes your defense has lapses."

Three players are in their final season of legion eligibility as Jonathan Benitez, Chris Bishop and Mike Palmer (all named to the legion all-star team) won't be eligible to play in 2016.

"I wish we could have won more for them," Rapp said. "That's why I'm hoping we can get that one-game playoff against Fullerton, and win that and at least field a couple of playoff games."

The future looks bright for Salisbury's legion program. Noah Adams, Eric Schware, Nick Sikora, Tama Anoa'i, Thomas Minutella, Tanner Fritz, Michael Schmidt and Tristan Rissmiller are some of the top players Rapp hopes to have back next summer. And a number of additions from the Connie Mack team will also help fill those voids.

"A lot of kids in the Connie Mack program that are really good ballplayers, next year I'll think they'll be more ready," Rapp said. "I've got a nice core of guys that can do a lot of different things, and with these kids coming up from the Connie Mack program, it's going to get a lot better because of that."

Anoa'i and Adams were named to an underclassmen showcase that will be held July 24-26. It's a tournament in which all-star teams from Bucks-Montgomery, Lehigh, Berks and Schuylkill counties field teams against each other.

"Last year they did it the same day as the all-star game, but they did it in the morning," Rapp said. "They were hoping to draw scouts to that from college, but not many came. All of the local legions in Region 2 decided to have a tournament."