Catasauqua Connie Mack manager John Pushkar has asked his team all season to be enthusiastic and play seven full innings.

Against South Parkland recently, the Rough Riders did.

Catty downed previously unbeaten South Parkland, 7-1, and at the time it raised their record to 2-7 overall. John Pushkar Jr., his son, went the distance in the victory.

The younger Pushkar twirled a two-hitter, striking out eight and walking two over his 95 pitches. However, he wasn’t that confident heading into the contest.

“I felt my outing was good considering my bullpen before the game was bad,” he stressed. “I was struggling to find control of my ball, but once I stepped on the real mound, I had all of my stuff working.”

The elder Pushkar noted how he could see progress in his team, noting the win over South Parkland, a 2-1 loss to East Stroudsburg, and an 8-2 loss to Southern Lehigh.

“I took a look at the standings, and South Parkland [was] 8-1, East Stroudsburg [was] 7-1, and Southern Lehigh [was] 8-2,” he said a couple weeks ago. “They are the top three teams in the league. We beat South Parkland, lost a close game to East Stroudsburg, and led Southern Lehigh going into the sixth inning.

“Before we beat South Parkland, we played a close game with Freemansburg in a 6-3 loss. We’ve been right there in a number of games, and we have to learn how to finish. Instead of playing seven [innings], we played three in our losses.”

Along with his son, Pushkar looked to Reese Lopez to handle the pitching duties. Macks Gillette has come out of the bullpen.

“John was a starter on the varsity, and Reese pitched twice this season,” he said. “We [had] issues when we had three or four games in a week. Macks has been able to finish some games for us, but pitch counts can make it difficult. We [hoped] that John and Reese can take us deep into games.”

Pushkar also cited the play of Lincoln Moore, who at one point lead the team with a .455 average, and referred to him as the “Jose Quendo” of the team for his versatility to play a number of positions.

Catty was just looking to finish the season strong.

“I told our guys that we can’t take anything for granted,” said the manager. “We have to come out strong and put our foot on the gas. It was great to see the looks on the kids’ faces when we won.

“We just need to be enthusiastic and keep playing the game through.