The Emmaus softball team was looking forward to putting its eight-game winning streak on the line against Parkland on Monday, but Mother Nature had other plans.

The Lady Trojans (8-0 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, 10-0 overall) are the only team to have dealt Emmaus a loss this season, and the Hornets aren’t shying away from getting another shot at the Trojans. Because of a wet playing field, they will now meet Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Kiwanis Field.

Emmaus head coach John Eyer would have liked to play Monday, but when the decision was made not to play, it gave his team a chance for a quick practice. Eyer went easy on his team, since it has a difficult schedule coming up, which was made even tougher by Monday’s rainout.

After an off-day Tuesday, Emmaus (7-1, 9-1) plays at Pleasant Valley (3-4, 3-4) on Wednesday, and then hosts both Reading (3-6) and Parkland on Thursday, with the game against Reading scheduled for 4 p.m. If that wasn’t enough, the Hornets have to play at Nazareth (6-4, 8-4) on Friday.

Eyer plans on trying to give some of his regulars a bit of a breather in the game against Reading, to keep them as sharp as possible to face division rival Parkland.

“They’re not a great team [Reading], but we never take anybody too lightly,” said Eyer. “We’ve been fortunate in that we’ve been able to get some playing time for our younger players and they’ve gained some experience and want to get in there. They know that when they’re called upon, they’re expected to do the job, and they believe that they can, and I believe that they can, too.”

While Emmaus will be looking for a little revenge against Parkland, Nazareth will be gunning for Emmaus after the Lady Hornets downed them 13-2 about 10 days ago.

“That’s going to be a tough stretch of games,” said Eyer. “It would have been nice to not have the Parkland game put into that string of games, but that was over my head. I was joking that they just want to make things a little tougher on us, but the girls are ready for pretty much anything we give them. They play a lot of summer leagues and on tournament teams, so they’re used to playing more than one game in a day.”

While Hannah Palinkas has been the mainstay on the mound for Emmaus, Megan Purinton threw a shutout against East Stroudsburg South and Maddy Clark did the same against Pottsville, striking out 10 in the process. Palinkas returned against Central Catholic last week and struck out 10 to beat the Vikettes 6-1.

Eyer points to a 6-1 win over Whitehall as being a key moment for the team this season. The win came one day after a 6-2 loss to Parkland, and has given the team the confidence it needed to rattle off eight wins in a row. On the horizon, Eyer sees the opportunity for the team to establish an even bigger turning point.

“I think that they were a little taken aback, not that it was easy, but to them, it seemed easy,” he said. “So at that time, they were a little taken aback, but now they realize that if they bring the game that they know how to play, they can beat anybody.

“We’ll see against Parkland on Thursday, because that could be the big turning point for us. If we take down Parkland, they’re really going to believe in themselves and they’re going to be tough to beat.”

It’s been a while since Eyer has sensed the type of confidence that he does from his current team, and it’s making the season a lot of fun.

“In the past, we’ve had some good teams, but I’m not quite sure that they ever really believed in themselves or in the system,” he said. “We’d play a good game, but then something would go wrong and they would hang their heads and it made it difficult for them to believe.

“This group has a different belief in themselves and they believe in each other. Even with the young players, the starters believe in them to do the job when they get the chance, so it’s something that hasn’t happened here in a while.”