With two pretty young teams, you get the feeling that Emmaus and Liberty are set for some pretty big battles over the next couple of seasons.

The first two real salvos in the war came in softball’s postseason this year when Emmaus downed the Hurricanes 3-2 in eight innings in the EPC semifinal before Liberty took revenge, winning the District 11 Semifinals 11-2 over the Hornets last week at Patriots Park in Allentown.

Liberty used the longball, slamming three home runs en route to the victory that sent the Hurricanes into the title game against Parkland. They went on to upset the undefeated Trojans and win the District 11 championship.

The pitching matchup between Emmaus and Liberty featured Emmaus’ sophomore Hannah Palinkas going up against freshman Paige Zigmund. The two pitchers figure to see a lot of each other over the rest of their high school careers.

Liberty scored twice in the second inning on a two-run home run from Jess Watts that sailed over the right field fence. Moments earlier, Watts just missed taking the ball out down the left field line, but that ball sailed just foul.

Two innings later, Kristin Keleycik hit a solo home run and Miranda Kinney hit a three-run home run in the top of the seventh to cap the scoring for Liberty.

“It was just one of those days for a lot of our players,” said coach John Eyer. “They were hitting the ball really well and we just didn’t respond and we had a tough time out there. I thought we battled throughout the game, but they just got us today.”

Alexis Ruth started the sixth inning with a groundball single to center and later scored when Caitlyn Ashelman reached on an error by shortstop Alexa Burger.

Brooke Iobst, the lone starting senior for Emmaus, grounded out but Maddie Clark scored from third on the play. Unfortunately for the Hornets, Liberty had put up four runs in the top of the inning to make it a 7-0 game.

Emmaus put runners on first and second in the seventh, but Zigmund was able to end the threat when Clark flied out to right field.

“We hit some balls hard, and we didn’t stop battling,” said Eyer. “The girls can be proud of what they accomplished this season, because they worked hard. They were successful and they had a lot of fun along the way. It really is a great group of girls.”

Besides Iobst, the Emmaus roster has just two other seniors – Alyssa Krasnansky and Brianna Schwoyer – and is filled primarily with juniors, many of which played big roles on this year’s team.

Three sophomores also saw time on the field for Emmaus during the season, with Palinkas emerging as an ace pitcher and Abby Bartels giving the Hornets a strong catcher to work with Palinkas.

Lily Trexler came off the bench to provide some key hits and could compete for a starting role down the road.

“This was just such a fun group to work with,” said Eyer. “They all kept each other up and they didn’t get down on each other, even when we were in tough spots.

“We would have liked to keep playing, but that’s the way it goes, and you have to tip your hat to Liberty because they’re a good team.”