Lower Macungie’s ride through the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs ended with a 2-1 loss to Southern Lehigh, but the good news is that they still have more baseball to play. As the host team for regionals, Lower Macungie is guaranteed a spot in the tournament, which begins Saturday at Emmaus Community Park.

In the 2-1 loss to the Spartans (7-12), Wiley Fleck threw three shutout innings of relief for the Mustangs, allowing just two hits. Lower Mac (10-7) managed just three hits with Colin Wilson driving in Cohen Schadler with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth.

Before the loss, Lower Macungie beat Northern Valley 6-5 in a loser’s bracket game to continue its run in the tournament. The wild game saw the Mustangs collect 13 hits and score two unearned runs on three Northern Valley errors. Schadler and Dayne Schmidt both collected three hits in the game with Emmit Budick getting two hits and scoring two runs.

“We were confident coming into the game and it was kind of a wild one for a while, but we just kept coming back and never lost our confidence,” said Schmidt.

Lower Macungie had a runner thrown out at the plate in the first inning and the Chargers (6-10) capitalized to take a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. The Mustangs fired right back with four straight singles to open their half of the second to take a 3-2 lead and an error led to another run later in the inning.

While Lower Macungie committed just one error in the game, it led to two unearned runs for Northern Valley in the third inning and helped the Chargers go back on top 5-4. The runs ended the day for starter Nick Balsamo, who gave way to Ryan Hummell with two outs in the third. Hummell restored order and held down the Chargers by allowing just one hit and one walk over 4.1 innings.

“I was able to throw the fastball outside all day and they were going after it, but not hitting it,” said Hummell. “We just stayed with it because a lot of guys don’t like to hit that pitch outside, so we just stayed there the whole time.”

As Hummell settled things down, Lower Macungie loaded the bases in the fourth on two singles and a hit batter.

Northern Valley starter Connor Simms exited in favor of Josh Lichman, who walked Mike Kernechel to force home a run and tie the game 5-5 in the fourth.

The Mustangs waited until the bottom of the sixth to deliver the knockout blow.

Dan Rholsen led off the inning with a bloop single to left and proceeded to steal second and third and Kernechel worked a walk to put two runners on base with nobody out. Jack Sparango stepped to the plate and hit a grounder to third and the throw home sailed wide of the plate, allowing Rholsen to score and Kernechel to move to third on the play. Later, a pitch got away from catcher Justin Augustus and Kernechel attempted to score but was thrown out at the plate as Lower Macungie had to settle for a 6-5 lead.

Hummell retired the side in order in the seventh with Drew McGeehan making a big play on a hard-hit line drive to first for the second out.

“I just kept throwing strikes and I knew my guys on the infield would take care of me, so I just trusted the defense,” said Hummell.

The Mustangs were 4-5 early in the season before heating up in July and winning four straight games going into the tournament. A first-round loss to North Parkland put them into the loser’s bracket, but they battled back to beat Northern Valley before bowing out.

“I think we all just got to know each other a little better as the season went on and we all just sort of came together,” said Schmidt of the team’s late surge. “That’s what has given us a lot of confidence for the postseason, and I think we can stay confident the whole way.”

Lower Macungie plays at 7 p.m. Saturday night against Northampton (12-5-1), the number-two team from the NORCO league, who lost to Wanderers in their tournament championship.