Emmaus came into the Connie Mack state playoffs in a pretty good spot. The Hornets finished as runners-up in the Lehigh Valley League playoffs, falling to Salisbury in the championship game. To get there, they knocked off Bethlehem Catholic 7-4 and picked up a hard fought 8-7 win over rival Lower Macungie in nine innings.

Against Salisbury, Emmaus grabbed a quick 4-0 lead in the top of the first, but Salisbury came back to outscore Emmaus 8-1 the rest of the way and grab the league championship in an 8-5 win.

“We just couldn’t keep tacking on runs in that game,” said Emmaus head coach Ryan Schaffer. “When you get off to a fast start like that, it’s great, but then you have to keep the pressure on and we didn’t do that.”

In the first round of states, Emmaus used a four-run third inning and strong pitching from Stephen Doddy to knock off Catasauqua 4-2, continuing their late season roll. Doddy allowed two first inning runs and then locked down Catty, allowing just three hits in the game. Dylan Lehman provided the bulk of the offense with a three-run double in the four-run inning.

Unfortunately for Emmaus, its offense was about to come to an abrupt stop in the summer heat. Harleysville downed Emmaus 10-0 to knock Emmaus out of the winner’s bracket and put the Hornets one loss away from elimination. That loss came the next time the team stepped on the field, when Northampton beat it 5-1 to end the season for Emmaus at 14-13 overall.

Against Northampton, Emmaus had its chances, but stranded 13 base runners and left the bases loaded in the seventh inning as it looked to mount a rally. While there were some signs of life against the Konkrete Kids, the offense was dead in the loss to Harleysville, collecting just four hits. It didn’t help that Emmaus committed four errors in the game. They also made three errors against Northampton.

“We just needed a hit or two at the right time and it wasn’t there,” said Schaffer, who wrapped up his first season as the Emmaus coach. “When you load the bases twice and leave them loaded, that hurts. The bottom line though is that we lost to a good team and we don’t have anything to hang our heads about.”

Dylan Lehman came up big on the mound for Emmaus in their final game, coming in with his trailing 5-0, the big right-hander threw three shutout innings, striking out five and giving his team a chance to fight its way back into the game.

The inconsistent offense in the playoffs was ultimately what led to Emmaus being ousted from the playoffs. The team scored just five runs overall and it did all of the scoring in just two innings. The offensive woes led, at one point, to 13 straight scoreless innings.

“I’m proud of the effort that our guys gave and it showed in how far we went,” said Schaffer. “We had to beat some pretty good teams along the way, and I thought that our guys never backed down from the challenges. All-in-all, it was a good season for us.”