RECAP >> It was just three weeks ago when Emmaus traveled up to Stroudsburg and won for the eighth time in 10 games as they defeated the Mountaineers 8-4.
At that point, the Hornets were sitting pretty with an 8-2 overall record, including a 7-1 mark in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
For first year coach Jeremy Haas, that game must seem like a distant memory.
Since beating Stroudsburg back on April 13, things have quickly gone downhill for an Emmaus squad that at the beginning of the season – at least on paper – seemed to have all the pieces in place to make a championship run.
Not so much more anymore.
In fact, everything that could go wrong in a given season has gone wrong.
Pitching woes. Offensive struggles. Defensive breakdowns. Injuries.
You name it, and it’s happened to this team.
“It’s been a little bit of a landslide going on and unfortunately there is not a whole lot I can do to stop that,” understated Haas. “It’s going to have to come from the 25 guys that we carry on our roster.”
“It just one of those things where I can put together a good practice plan and say all the right things, but at the end of the day it’s going to take these 12 seniors and the rest of our guys to come together and figure it out on their own.”
Since the loss to Stroudsburg, the Hornets haven’t.
It’s now four straight losses and six in the last eight games for Emmaus which is now just two games over .500 (10-8) and 9-6 in the league. Despite the struggles, the team will qualify for both the EPC and District XI playoffs.
In its most recent loss, a 8-3 setback on Saturday at rival Parkland, it was much of the same problems happening again.
Emmaus, which had already suffered one loss to the Trojans this season, fell into an early hole as they trailed 4-0 after just one inning, and despite rallying with a three-run second to get to within 4-3, never seemed to challenged the rest of the way.
They managed just three hits in the game, took themselves out of two innings with poor base running mistakes and five Emmaus pitchers combined to issue nine walks and hit three batsmen.
“There was a silver lining today,” said Haas. ” I thought we competed really well from start to finish, for the most part. There’s no such thing as a good loss, but I think this is a loss that can propel us to better things. “
Freshman Jaden Gallagher suffered his first defeat of the season in just his second start. The hard-throwing right-hander gave up five runs on three hits and walked four in just 1 2/3 innings before leaving the game after being hit by a line drive to the leg in the second inning.
“Gallagher has got good stuff,” said Haas. “As a freshman going forward he’s going to pitching big games for us. It’s one of those things where we want to find out what he has. He was scheduled to get work today. He’s going to be a really good pitcher for us.”
Emmaus hitters had to deal with a good one in Parkland senior starter Adam Smith who picked up the win after going six strong innings. Smith labored through a tough second inning in which he gave up three runs, but then settled down the rest of the way to blank the Hornets, allowing just three hits in the game, walking one and striking out seven, Fellow senior Koby Staviecki came on in the seventh and retired the Hornets in order.
Senior center fielder Joe Webber was the only Parkland player with a multi-hit game going 2-for-3 with a walk. Freshman third baseman Blake Barthol went 1-for-2 with two RBI, while junior first baseman Jared Kucharczuk was also 1-for-2 with two runs scored and two walks. The Trojans, who had dropped two of their last three games, improved to 14-2 in the EPC and 15-4 overall.
For Emmaus, senior right fielder Justus Darville was 1-for-3 with a RBI triple and run scored, junior second baseman Matt Madigan also went 1-for-3 with an RBI double and sophomore first baseman Andrew O’Brien, making his first career varsity start, had a 1-for-2 day with an RBI double.
Sophomore catcher Sam Dietz saw his first varsity action behind the plate as did freshman Tyler LePage who pinch hit in the seventh inning and went 0-for-1.
The Hornets will look to get back on track at 4 p.m. on Monday as they close out their EPC regular-season schedule traveling to Coca-Cola Park to take on Central Catholic.
Follow @Emmaussports.com on twitter, ‘like’ Emmaus baseball on facebook to keep up to date on the team throughout the season.
Emmaus – 030 000 0 – 3-3-2
Parkland – 410 120 x – 8-7-1
Jaden Gallagher, Jaime Hamilton (2), Dylan Lehman (4), Jude Negron (5), Everett Horton (6) and Keegan Nytz, Sam Dietz (3)
Adam Smith, Koby Staviecki (7) and George Jenkins.
WP – Smith, LP – Gallagher (0-1)
Emmaus – Nytz 0-0, BB, 2 HBP; Robinson 0-3, Henseler 0-3, Ritter 0-3, R; Darville 1-3, triple, RBI: Rodriguez 0-1, Dietz 0-1, LePage 0-1, Madigan 1-3, double, RBI; O’Brien 1-2, double, RBI; Freeman 0-1, Negron 0-1.