A young Emmaus softball team is taking its lumps early in the season. Recently against Northampton, the offense erupted for an eight-run second inning, only to give up 10 runs in the bottom of the inning in an eventual 12-8 loss. The tough 1-5 start hasn’t been as disastrous as it may seem though, as Emmaus has played some close games against very good teams.

Against defending Class 2A state champion Bethlehem Catholic, Emmaus nearly pulled off a big upset. Emmaus got two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead, but the Golden Hawks tied the game in the sixth. The game went extra innings, and Emmaus gave up three runs in the top of the ninth, but the game wasn’t over. The Lady Hornets put on a rally, coming up with two runs, but falling just short in a 9-8 loss. The team also suffered a 9-5 loss to Nazareth in extra innings.

The fact is there were key points in each of the five losses where things fell apart for Emmaus. That includes that one horrific inning against Northampton that left the team with a 12-8 loss in a game that should have been placed easily in the win column.

“It’s frustrating,” sadi Emmaus head coach John Eyer. “You go up 8-0 on a team, you shouldn’t lose. You give up some walks and then all hell breaks loose and we just struggled to come back from it.

“We’ve been in every game, except for one inning. We outhit them, but we just can’t win the game and that’s the killer.”

Much of that 10-run inning against Northampton can be traced to problems from the Emmaus pitching, with some added miscues from the defense. Emmaus walked three batters, hit a batter and had a wild pitch in the inning, while giving up five hits. The Hornets’ defense also made two errors in the inning.

Having a very young team, and an even younger pitching staff, is leading to the growing pains for the team through the early part of the season. It’s very possible that once some of the players get more experience under their belts, the team will cut down on the mistakes and play much better softball later in the season.

“They’re young pitchers,” said Eyer. “They’re sophomores and freshmen, so they know what they’ve got to work on. We’ll just keep plugging.”

Overall, Eyer has been happy with the effort that the team has shown, even in their loss to Northampton.

“We stayed pretty positive with them because they didn’t play a terrible game,” said Eyer. “The walks bite us every time. You give up two, three walks in an inning, a couple hits, and it just hurts.”

Emmaus plays at Parkland Wednesday afternoon, in a game that was originally scheduled to be played Tuesday, but was postponed by rain. Thursday, the Hornets travel to East Stroudsburg North and Saturday, they play at Hamburg in a nonconference game.