With March snowstorms in each of the past two years now, local baseball teams have gotten used to practicing indoors in gyms or anywhere they can find space.

If Emmaus’ first game is any indication, the Hornets might not have really missed having time on the field because of the snow, as they came out of the box with a 12-1 win over Reading.

This year’s team has a good crop of returning seniors to help give the team a lot of leadership, which could be one reason why it didn’t struggle despite not having played on a field for two weeks.

The roster has 11 seniors, many of whom were regular contributors over the past couple of seasons for the Hornets.

“There’s a different feel this season,” said Hornet head coach Mike Mihalik, who enters his third season in the position. “I think with all of the seniors, they just have fallen right into a groove and the younger players are picking up on it. There’s more confidence and a feeling that they just know what to do and how to approach things.”

Emmaus will have the ability to win games both with its bats and with pitching this season, giving it a balanced attack.

Last year’s team was figured to be dominated by pitching, but at the end of the year, the offensive stats were pretty impressive.

This year, the balanced attack will help Emmaus win games.

“There is definitely a lot more depth this season on the pitching staff,” pointed out Mihalik. “That’s going to be important if, or when, we run into those situations where we have four games in a week or start to get games backing up on us, which usually happens at some point.

“Offensively, we can put up some runs, too. I was impressed with Moxey [senior Todd Moxey] in the opener, because to go 4-for-4 any time is a big day, but to do it in the season opener, having not seen live pitching for two weeks was really fun to watch.”

Senior pitcher Matt Lanzone started against Reading and went four innings, but struggled with his command, allowing four walks. He pitched his way into some jams, but also was able to work out of them, allowing just one run.

Thanks to the depth in pitching, Lanzone handed the game off to senior Logan Foley for two innings and freshman Wyatt Henseler threw the final inning. In addition to throwing a shutout inning, Henseler hit a home run for Emmaus in the win.

“The game was close for most of the game (4-1 through five innings), and I think that was important for us to get that experience of being in a close game,” said Mihalik. “Obviously, it’s nice to score a bunch of runs, but you have to know how to win those close games, too. Reading had actually been able to be outside playing, so they had that going for them coming into the game, but it just felt like we didn’t miss a beat.

“There are some young kids like Henseler and Kellan Tulio and Adam LeMaster, who have come up from JV and are going to contribute. I feel bad for a lot of our juniors, because on a lot of teams, they would be starters, but they’ve got guys ahead of them here.”

If the weather holds out for Emmaus, it will open league play on Friday at home against Pocono Mountain West and then host Central Bucks West Saturday in a nonconference game. Tuesday will put the Hornets back into an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference battle when they host Northampton.