While it was impressive to see the Emmaus offense erupt against Pocono Mountain West and score 15 runs in three innings for a 15-0 mercy rule win, it would have been nice to see the game go longer, because of another impressive performance that was cut short.

Senior Zach Schrader was cruising through the Pocono Mountain West lineup and was perfect through three innings, striking out four batters along the way.

Of the 36 pitches Schrader threw, 27 were for strikes. Panthers hitters didn’t manage to get a ball out of the infield in their nine at-bats.

“I felt good after the first batter,” said Schrader. “It was really going well and it’s easy with this team because I have a good defense behind me, so even when they make contact I know guys can make plays. I just pitch to contact and let them make plays.”

While Schrader was happy with how he pitched, he wasn’t getting too excited about his three perfect innings and what might have been if given the chance to pitch deeper.

“It was good, but it was only three innings,” said Schrader.

Coach Mike Mihalik awarded Schrader the game ball for his perfect game, even though it was just three innings.

Mihalik was happier with how Schrader pitched than with the results that he was able to get. The head coach liked Schrader’s pace and emphasized that he’s not afraid to let guys hit the ball, which for him, is the perfect approach.

“He needs to be that guy,” said Mihalik. “He can throw three different pitches for strikes, so he needs to be one of those guys who is efficient and can hit the corners and he did that today. It doesn’t matter if it was Pocono Mountain West or a better opponent, I think he was going to have a good day today on the mound.”

Even had Schrader been something less than perfect, the Emmaus offense would have had his back. In their first two games, the Hornets have scored 27 runs, while giving up just one.

Nick Amey and Austin Robertson each had two hits and drove in two runs, with Amey scoring twice and Robertson crossing the plate three times. Eric Cichocki drove in three runs for Emmaus, including the final run of the game.

On Monday, Emmaus had the tables reversed when it lost a 10-4 decision to Northampton. Evan Marushak, Taden Gery and Adam LeMaster each had two hits in the game, with Gery driving in two runs in the loss.

With much of the Hornets’ preseason practice coming indoors because of the weather, Mihalik wasn’t sure what to expect from his offense in the early going, although he thought that there was reason to be optimistic.

“The offense has done their job, to say the least, and I’m very pleased with that,” said Mihalik. “They’ve done it under some different circumstances, The first time, they hadn’t seen live pitching outside for two weeks, so I was really happy with the 12 runs.

“Today, it was much different pitching, because they’ve seen a lot of right-handers indoors and then today they saw some softer throwing left-handers. It sort of challenged their approach at the plate, but obviously they did a good enough job to put up 15 runs in three innings.”

Even though they have good arms to throw at teams, Schrader believes that the pitchers can feed off the offense and not have to worry about being – here’s that word again – perfect.

“Throughout the whole lineup, one-through-nine, everyone is going to hit, so I know we’re going to put up runs,” Schrader said. “It gives us confidence as pitchers to just go out there and throw strikes.”

The week ahead could be an interesting one for Emmaus. On Thursday, the Hornets face rival Parkland for the first time this season. Parkland got a combined no-hitter from two pitchers in its season-opener, but offense is a bit of a question mark for the Trojans.