RECAP >> The good news to report from Emmaus Community Park last night was that Kellan Tulio returned to form and looked every bit like a top-notch pitcher.
With a handful of scouts in attendance, Tulio, along with reliever sophomore Braden Waller, were both impressive on the mound as they combined on a 16-strikeout, no-hitter as the Hornets blanked Allen 10-0 in a game that was stopped in the bottom of the sixth inning due to the 10-run rule.
The bad news, however, was that neither one of the team’s catchers – senior Ian Kauffman or backup junior Jadon Diaz – were around for the ending.
Kauffman suffered a broken left thumb on the last pitch of warm-ups prior to the game and Diaz left in the third inning with a hip flexor while running down the first base line.
“It’s a bit of a hollow win for me,” said Emmaus first year head coach Jeremy Haas just moments after addressing his team. “Losing your two catchers is always very difficult. I feel for Kauffman and for Diaz because they worked their butts off all off season to put themselves in position for the stretch run. Now, they are not able to do that but that’s baseball.”
For Kauffman, the injury bug strikes again as he missed the first few games of the season with a broken finger and last year, he suffered a broken collar bone while taking batting practice prior to the team’s EPC semifinal game with Easton at the University of Scranton.
Senior second baseman Keegan Nytz, the team’s third string catcher, was forced into duty and caught the last three innings of a game that lasted 2-hours and 30 minutes.
“I can’t say enough about what Keegan did for our team tonight,” said Haas.
Or of the efforts of both Tulio and Waller.
“They did a phenomenal job,” said Haas. “The one thing they did was that they got strike one and strike two and they stayed ahead of hitters all night. “
Tulio, who was winless in his last three starts, picked up his second win of the season (2-1), as he went five strong innings and struck out a career-high 13. His previous high was 12 in his first start of the season against Northampton.
“His confidence never wavered,” said Haas of his left-hander. “He wasn’t afraid of the situation. He never backed down and he made the necessary adjustments. He did exactly what he wanted to do today.”
The no-hitter was the first for Emmaus since March 30, 2017 when Zach Schrader held Pocono Mountain West hitless in a 15-0, three-inning game at Church Lane Park.
Emmaus, which improved to 10-4 overall and 9-2 in the EPC, had eight hits in the game off four Allen pitchers.
Designated hitter senior Justus Darville reached base three times and went 2-for-3 at the plate and left fielder junior Matt Madigan was the only other Hornet with a multi-hit game going 2-for-4. Right fielder junior Jude Negron drove in a pair of runs and scored two runs.
Allen suffered its fourth straight loss and dropped to 6-8 overall on the season. In their last four games, the Canaries have been outscored 73-9 in losses to Whitehall (19-4), Freedom (22-5) and Pleasant Valley (22-0)
Emmaus will return to action at 2 p.m. on Saturday as they get back into Skyline Division play traveling to Nazareth. The game was originally scheduled for 11 a.m. but moved back due to the weather.
The Hornets will also have a number of key games upcoming next week, including a pair of road games at a streaking Northampton squad (Monday @ 4 pm) and at undefeated Parkland (Saturday @ 6:30 pm). They’ll also take on Whitehall (Wednesday @ 7 pm) at Community Park in their final regular-season home game on Senior Night.
“Our focus right now is to go 1-0 tomorrow at Nazareth and if we do that then we will move on to Northampton on Monday,” said Haas. “We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We really have to take it one game at a time. If we do anything but that we’re going to get ourselves in trouble with the depth in our division.”
Allen – 000 000 – 0-0-2
Emmaus – 020 305 – 10-8-2
Luis Velazquez, Heriberto Crucey (4), Stevenson Guzman (6), Julio Cortez (6) and Suarez
Kellan Tulio, Braden Waller (6) and Jadon Diaz, Keegan Nytz (4)
WP – Tulio (2-1); LP – Velazquez