The Lady Hornets started last season by picking up wins in 10 of their first 12 games, but didn’t add another win after that, finishing 10-11 on the season, with nine straight losses.

This season, the team comes having lost four seniors, but also with a lot of experienced players who will provide depth for a team looking to turn things around. They also have a lot of young players looking to make their mark with the team.

The roster consists of five seniors – Jocelyn Kelly, Sarah Mohr, Miranda O’Donald, Emily Quigg and Erin Schmick – to go along with three juniors, seven sophomores and one freshman.

“We have a lot of young players on the team, but we actually have a good core group of players who we rely on,” said coach John Eyer, who is entering his 17th season as the coach of the team. We’ve also got some flexibility, because we have a number of girls who can play at more than one position and play well at those spots.”

One of the keys for the team will be improved fundamentals, especially on defense. Last year’s team committed over 60 errors, or about three times their average for a normal season.

“We simply can’t be that bad again,” said Eyer about his team’s defense. “If we repeat those numbers, we’re going to be in trouble just like we were last season, because that’s hard to overcome.”

Part of the depth comes in the form of quality pitching. Eyer believes he has five pitchers who can help the team this season. Mohr, along with sophomores CeCe Wippel, Madison Clark and Megan Purinton join freshman Hannah Palinkas as pitchers who could all see pitching for the team this season. Having five pitchers is more depth on the mound than Emmaus has had in a few seasons and Eyer hopes to be able to take advantage of the strength.

“Right now, we’ve got these five pitchers, so we can do a lot of things there,” said Eyer. “Plus, they can each play at other positions, so we can mix and match effectively and play to our strengths. The pitching and the overall depth are going to help us a lot this season. It’s the most depth we’ve had in a while.”

For the returning members of the team that endured the nine game losing stretch, getting things turned around quickly is a big part to the season. Conference play begins this afternoon at Allen and continues with a home game against defending state 2A Champion Bethlehem Catholic on Monday. Some early wins would go a long way to wiping off the stain of the bad finish from last season.

“I think especially for our seniors, it’s important to make a statement that this program is better than that,” said Eyer. “They remember that feeling and it still stings for them, so they’re determined to wipe that away once and for all.”