The Emmaus High School baseball team put together a streak of six wins in eight games to finish the regular season and not only clinch a spot in districts, but make its way into the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs. Big wins over Nazareth, Whitehall, Northampton and Parkland put the Hornets into the conference playoffs with momentum, but that changed when they met Parkland for the third time this season.

Parkland’s Mike Jennings kept Emmaus’ hitters off balance all day, as Parkland gained a 7-2 win in the EPC quarterfinals, eliminating Emmaus from the conference postseason. The Emmaus offense, which produced 25 runs in its last five games of the season, was held in check, but coach Mike Mihalik doesn’t believe it was all Jennings that hindered the bats.

“I think our approach might have been upstairs for some of our hitters,” Mihalik said. “He lived away the entire game. He’d make a mistake over the plate every once in a while, but I just don’t think we were looking for the pitches outside and that’s a mistake on our part.”

Emmaus put runners on the corners with one out in the first inning, but failed to capitalize when Jenkins struck out the next two hitters to end the threat. Mihalik believes it would have been big for his team to take an early lead, especially after having just beaten Parkland two days earlier.

“I don’t know that it was necessarily a turning point, but it would have been really nice to get something there,” Mihalik said. “Had we done that, I think we would have gone out there defensively and thought ‘all right, just a continuation from last game, and we’re still the ones who are on top and have the momentum.’ But that didn’t happen. That’s not why we lost, but we could have had a better start.”

Having to play Parkland three times this season, including in back-to-back games, was a challenge. Mihalik and his team didn’t back away from any challenges and came in ready to play, no matter who they had to face.

“We saw the seeding at our meeting the other night and I saw it was going to either be Parkland or Freedom and anyone can beat anyone in this league,” he said. “My message for that has been consistent year round and we just didn’t do enough offensively.”

Both teams battled an erratic strike zone throughout the game, but the Emmaus hitters seemed to let it bother them. Pitcher Todd Moxey was called out on a pitch that looked just out of the strike zone to end the third inning and may have had that on his mind when he went back out to the mound. Parkland put together a five-run bottom of the third to take a 6-0 lead.

“I think our team let it bother us a little bit,” said Mihalik. “Our catcher [Jake Hahn] seemed a little confused with what the strike zone was and he’s the one that knows better. I think some guys let it get to them a little bit and you just can’t, as frustrating as it might be. If you’re going to be blaming the umpire then you’re not looking to put the bat on the ball when pitches are close and we didn’t do that today, our two-strike approach was very bad.

“We had a bad game. We didn’t hit like we’ve been hitting, our approach wasn’t good and you’re going to have those throughout the year, I just didn’t think it would happen today after putting together such a good week offensively.”

Emmaus will now have eight days off before the start of the District 11 playoffs, but when the Hornets went through a late-season stretch of off-days because of the weather, they responded well and won four out of five games.

“I’m concerned about what’s going on upstairs, keeping them sharp, keeping them focused,” said MIhalik. “When you have a week off, whether it’s weather related or something like this, you tend to get a little sloppy. To me, that’s the biggest area of concern.

“We had a good week and to continue that with the next eight or nine days off, that’s going to be a challenge. We still have a lot to play for. Everyone can beat everyone and we still have that chance in the district tournament.”