Emmaus gains revenge, postseason momentum
Allentown Central Catholic handed Emmaus its first loss of the baseball season with a 12-9 stunner back on April 23 after the Green Hornets had won their first 12 games.
So, you might have thought Emmaus had revenge on its mind when it played the Vikings again on Monday to close out the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference regular-season schedule.
Green Hornets coach Jeremy Haas said, however, that his team’s 19-2, five-inning rout of ACCHS wasn’t so much about revenge as it was about entering the postseason on a positive note.
“Typically it would have been about getting payback, but really today was more about getting out of the regular season on the right foot,” Haas said. “I thought our guys did a really good job. They started a little slow, but then they started taking good at-bats and we pulled balls and hit it all over the place and we pitched and played defense. So I thought it was a good game to end the regular season on.”
Emmaus trailed 1-0 after two innings but scored six runs in the third and 10 in the fifth.
The Green Hornets collected 12 hits, including five for extra bases, and took advantage of 12 walks, three hit batsmen and two ACCHS errors.
Dom Chiego hit a grand slam, Colin Foley hit a two-run home run, Josh Williams had a three-run double and Zach McEllroy tripled in a run. Four different players had two hits or more and three drove in at least three runs.
Emmaus, which finished its schedule at 16-4, 13-3 EPC, will get a home game Thursday when the league tournament begins with four quarterfinal-round games.
Senior pitcher Luke Deschenes, who was instrumental in the Green Hornets’ run to the EPC and District 11 6A championships last year, worked 2 ⅔ innings and was tagged for two hits and two earned runs. But he threw just 37 pitches, meaning he’s eligible to get the ball again Thursday for the playoff opener.
The three pitchers who followed Deschenes to the mound didn’t allow a hit or walk.
Haas didn’t know who his team’s quarterfinal-round opponent would be, but was certain it would be a tough game.
Other teams in the tournament will be Pleasant Valley, Liberty, Nazareth, Easton and Parkland with the other two spots not clinched as games were held Monday.,
“We’re probably going to be the No. 3 seed in both the league and district tournaments unless something shakes out in our favor, but it doesn’t really matter because either way we’re going to have win three tough games in both tournaments to be a champion,” he said. “We set two goals every year and that’s to clinch a spot for the EPCs and also clinch a spot for districts. We’ve done both of those things and now it’s a matter of being the best team we can be going forward. Before now and Thursday we need two really good practices to get ready.”
Emmaus went just 4-4 in its last eight games, but Chiego, the team’s senior catcher who experienced last year’s playoff run, believes the Green Hornets can do it again.
“The main goal is to not get complacent and have the same mentality we had last year,” Chiego said. “We want to come up and surprise people and come up big in certain spots. I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that heading into playoffs and I’m excited to see what we have ahead of us. Losing to [Central Catholic] the first time was good for us because maybe we were getting too above ourselves. Everybody hates to lose, but it was a reality check.”
The Vikings, who got hits only from Antonio Albanese and Mason Abromitis, fell to 8-9 overall, 8-8 EPC and while they didn’t qualify for the league tournament, they will be in the District 11 4A field. That tournament is set to start on May 25.
Before that they have games against East Stroudsburg South, Hanover Area and Palisades.
The game against East Stroudsburg South is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Limeport and will be Central’s Senior Night.
“Tomorrow is senior night and I think we’re going to get on a roll after that,” Vikings coach Mike Brosious said. “I like our chances going forward.”
Brosious said his team brought up three JV pitchers in an effort to get through the last three games and set up for the start of the district tournament.
“We knew it might be a struggle today because we wanted to save our ace for our Senior Night and then go with our No. 2 guy on Saturday,” Brosious said. “For three innings, we held in there and battled, but then it kind of went the way we expected. It doesn’t feel good to lose 19-2, but we have three games left and that’s what we’re focused on.”