It’s not a secret that this year’s legion season was a bit disappointing for head coach Chris Rapp and the rest of the Salisbury squad.

Despite defeating Emmaus 3-1 last Friday in its second-to-last game of the season, Salisbury finished the season with just two wins in 18 games. Eight of those losses were by 10 or more runs, leaving the Falcons scratching their heads throughout the condensed schedule of the Lehigh Valley Legion Baseball League.

There’s one constant issue that could be pointed to across the board when it comes to those losses-the Falcons’ defensive woes.

“We made too many errors,” Rapp said. “We were competitive in some games, but the games we weren’t is when we didn’t play any defense. Defense was our biggest issue.”

Take the last five games Salisbury played. A total of 10 errors played a key role in the Falcons going 1-4 over that stretch and being outscored 50-9.

And for Rapp, he believes those miscues were more of a trickle down effect that plagued all areas of the field.

“It’s sort of contagious sometimes in my opinion,” Rapp said. “I had some guys that played their normal positions for me, and some other kids had errors and then they got an error. It sort of spread throughout the team. In the two games we won, we played pretty good defense. There were a couple of other games that we lost by a run or two, our defense cost us in those games.”

Salisbury’s other win came in early July against North Parkland, a team that is third in the LVL standings as the playoffs get underway.

“Had we played better defense, I thought we would have had a better year,” Rapp said. “

Despite the struggles and disappointments, there were still positives to take out of the season. Players from three different high schools (Salisbury, Central Catholic and Dieruff) joined together to form a bond most of them hadn’t had prior to this season. While some other players from Salisbury’s successful high school team played Connie Mack baseball this summer.

A number of Salisbury legion players were recognized for their individual accomplishments and selected to the legion all-star game held at the Reading Phillies’ FirstEnergy Stadium. Pitcher Eric Schware was named to the team and pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts, while Noah Adams and Nino Encarnacion were also selected as all-stars against the Schuylkill County counterparts.

“It’s one of the best experiences I have,” said Rapp, who was an assistant coach for the all-star team. “Also coming up we have a future’s showcase…any rising senior or less grade-wise will be eligible for the team.”

Next year is still months away, but Rapp is hoping to lead a charge that reverses Salisbury’s trend of disappointment the last two seasons.

“I still enjoyed it,” Rapp said. “It was tougher this year because we didn’t win as many games as I thought we could. We get a lot of the team back, and hopefully next year we get more of the Salisbury (High School) kids involved.”