Mike Jenkins put on a pretty good pitching show against Emmaus in a 7-1 win over the Trojans’ division rivals last week. Jenkins struck out six hitters, many of which came on a curveball that kept Emmaus swinging and missing throughout the game.

“The curveball was working for me today,” said Jenkins. “I just went with what the coach was calling.”

The win over the Hornets, followed by wins over Pocono Mountain West and Pleasant Valley, has the Trojans at 6-3 overall and 6-2 in the EPC this season, but chasing Whitehall, who is 7-0 in the EPC this season and 7-1 overall for the Skyline Division lead. The teams meet next Tuesday at Whitehall for their first of two meetings this season.

“I think this win will get us rolling,” said Jenkins. “We’ve been playing better and our practices have been harder and I think we’re starting to come together more.”

“We started slowly,” said Parkland head coach Kurt Weber after the win over Emmaus. “This was the perfect time for us to get started, in a rivalry game, so it was perfect timing. We had a good week of practice coming into this, so I was expecting good things.”

Weber noted that he would have liked to see a little more offense from his team later in the game, but remains happy with how hit team is working to improve.

Jenkins’ game was big for the Trojans, who are facing a depleted pitching staff because of some injuries. With Jenkins giving Parkland six strong innings and Matt Mellinger coming on to close out the game, Weber got what he needed from Jenkins, who was fine with stepping aside for Mellinger.

“I knew Matt would go out and finish it, so I wasn’t worried about having to throw a complete game or anything,” said Jenkins.

“With the injuries, we have to kind of take care of the guys who are healthy,” said Weber. “It was nice to keep his pitch count down as low as we could, because we’re going to need these guys to keep throwing.”

Jenkins was back on the mound Monday against Pleasant Valley and got the win in that game for the Trojans.

As things start to heat up in the baseball season, there is a lot of parity in the EPC.

“I don’t think there are any really dominant, shutdown pitchers,” said Weber “So any day, anybody can win. It might be a matter of peaking at the right time and that’s what we’re hoping to do. We’ve got to get some younger guys to step up and if we can hold the line until we get a couple guys back, it will be a huge boost going into the playoffs.”