Northampton’s Nick DeMeiri knows how to throw strikes. Emmaus (6-5, 8-7) faced DeMeiri last season and saw his command up close and personal, so the Hornets knew what they were up against coming into Monday night’s game against the Konkrete Kids (5-7, 9-8). DeMeiri was his old self, throwing 82 pitches, 57 of which were for strikes, allowing just two hits in a 3-0 win over Emmaus. It was the first time this season that the Hornets were shutout in a game.

“We had a lot of good at-bats and a lot of balls hit hard,” said Emmaus head coach Mike Mihalik. “Obviously, when you have two hits, it says that you didn’t do enough offensively, and we didn’t. That kid that threw against us [DeMeiri] is just going to light up the strike zone all day long, so we’re not going to work deep counts off that kid. You have to come back off of that and be aggressive and swing off the fastball, and we did that. We had a lot of hittable pitches, we just hit them right at them.”

Meanwhile, Emmaus starter Todd Moxey seemed able to match DeMeiri throughout the game, but couldn’t get the run support he needed for Emmaus to battle back. Northampton went ahead in the third, when with runners on first and second and two out, Moxey threw two wild pitches, giving the Konkrete Kids a 1-0 lead. Ian Luberti then singled on a hanging change-up to give Northampton a 2-0 lead. Northampton’s last run also came with two outs. Matt Hutchins led off the fifth with a single, stole second and advanced to third on a groundball. Jared Angerman then singled through the middle to score Hutchins and make it 3-0.

“This was actually, I think, the best that Todd’s ever thrown,” said Mihalik. “He was dialed in. He had three pitches working for him and his fastball location was the best that I’ve seen it. He had a good slider going for him tonight, his change-up was good. He made just one or two mistakes, but he was outstanding tonight.”

Emmaus needs two wins to qualify for districts, and has five games remaining.

The final week of games opens with Parkland (10-2) at home on Wednesday before a trip to Northampton Friday afternoon. Saturday has Emmaus hosting Nazareth (10-3, 10-5) before the final road game at Whitehall (8-4, 9-6) Monday and the season finale Tuesday night at home against Central Catholic (7-5, 9-7-1).

“You can’t read into any records in the league this year,” said Mihalik. “If you look at everyone’s record, even the teams that are down at the bottom have beaten a really good team this year. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day.

“It’s ridiculous this year. We just need a couple wins and it doesn’t matter who they’re against. Every team we play is beatable, some are more beatable than others, depending on the pitcher.

The Hornets have some rivalry games left that would be big games even without the postseason implications. Their focus will remain on the game ahead.

“They’re [the players] going to be up for the Parkland game, that’s for sure. Even if we had won tonight, we still have a tough road ahead, so it’s going to be a good test this week.

“I think if you say, ‘we’ve got to win two games to qualify for districts,’ you’re forced to look at the game that’s ahead of you. On Wednesday, that’s going to be our approach.

“We have to win two, this is going to be the first one. I’m not too concerned about looking too far ahead, because we have work to do and we have to come up with a couple of wins here this week.”