The Coplay Connie Mack team is looking to make a run to the playoffs. Sitting at 3-5, they still have several games in hand to make up as they try to play catch-up in the standings.

“The season so far is going as well as I expected for the first year back into it,” said head coach Jon Wagner. “We’ve had some bright moments and some down moments. I expected that though with having only 4 or 5-aged Connie Mack players.

“We’re an extremely young team made up with a majority of Whitehall’s middle school team who also are all on our Junior Connie Mack team.

Wagner said the older boys - Dylan Koury, Alex Kotsch, Ben Walker and Robert Yankowy - have all stepped up as leaders and have taken a lot of the younger boys under their wings and performed well as a cohesive group.

“I can’t say enough about the older boys helping with the younger kids bringing them along, not just mentally, but also in a baseball sense too,” Wagner said.

Wagner also had praise for Connor Strauss, who the team is waiting and hoping gets cleared from a back fracture.

“He was at every game doing everything he could to help us coaches and on the base paths,” Wagner said.

Unfortunately Yankowy, who is the team’s catcher, who also came back from a back injury at Whitehall, reinjured his back last week. Wagner said he’s showing up to the games just to help and be around the rest of the boys.”

Coplay currently sits four spots out of making the playoffs.

“The younger ones came out of the gates shellshocked the first one or two games, but finally settled in and by the fourth game took Nazareth (8-4) into the fourth inning holding the lead and we slowly lost it by the sixth,” Wagner said. “We pulled off a huge win against Stroudsburg (3-7) who only lost to the top teams in the league by one or two runs each, so that was a huge confidence boost for all the boys and us as a coaching staff.

“The grit in all of these kids has us all thinking we have a solid slate in front of us to make a playoff push. They know where they’re sitting standings-wise and they all have the hunger to keep playing this summer, so we’re gonna see what unfolds for us.

Wagner said Jordan Miller has stepped up on the mound, along with Matt Hansen. Both younger players, they have gone deep into games as of late holding a lot of teams in check at the plate. Chase Miller, Alex Kotsch, Zach Schaedel and Dylan Koury have been on hitting tears the last two weeks hitting.

Ryan Lindenmuth and Seth Hoderewski are two of the Junior Connie Mack players that came up that have a lot of talent and are two of the most universal players. They can play anywhere we need to put them and do so without a second of hesitation, Wagner added.

“I couldn’t be happier with the progress all the boys made so far and with how the seasons unfolding once they all settled in. We knew it would probably be a rough go putting 13- and 14-year-olds up against older, more experienced teams but I think they’ve opened a lot of eyes in the Valley and know we’re a contender any day of the week.

The team is made up of: Dylan Grohotolsky, Ben Walker, Connor Strauss, Ryan Lindenmuth, Zach Schaedel, Robert Yankowy, Seth Hoderewski, Jayden Fink, Abner Ortiz, Matt Hansen, Logan Kramlich, Konnor Moyer, Dylan Koury, Alex Kotsch, Nick Kotsch, Chase Miller, Alex Mastropieri and Jordan Miller.

Lehigh Valley

Connie Mack standings

NW Beth 12 0 0

Moore Twp 11 1 0

S. Parkland 9 2 0

Franklin Twp 11 3 0

Northern Vy 7 2 0

Bangor 9 3 1

Becahi 7 3 0

Nazareth 8 4 0

Central 5 3 0

So. Lehigh 7 5 1

Northampton 5 4 0

Jim Thorpe 6 5 0

Palmerton 7 6 0

Wilson 6 6 0

Hellertown 4 6 0

Coplay 3 5 0

Stroudsburg 3 7 0

N. Parkland 3 9 0

Emmaus 3 10 0

Freemansburg 2 7 0

Salisbury 2 12 0

East Strouds. 1 10 0

Palmer Twp 0 8 0

Easton 0 10 0