With the Emmaus Legion team hovering right around the .500 mark this season, a Sunday doubleheader against rival Lower Macungie seemed the perfect spot for the team to try to burst out for a late season run.

After taking the opener 6-5, Lower Macungie rallied back in the second game to grab a 7-6 win over Emmaus, splitting the two games.

In the opener, Emmaus got an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning when Eric Cichocki led off the game with a ground ball to short that was booted, allowing Cichocki to reach base.

After Lower Macungie’s Matt Lanzone retired the next two batters, back-to-back singles scored Cichocki and put Emmaus up 1-0.

After Lower Mac put up two in the top of the third, Emmaus came right back in their half of the inning when Lanzone uncharacteristically walked the first two batters and one out later gave up an RBI single to Logan Foley, who also had driven in Emmaus’ first run of the game.

Lanzone then got the Hornets to ground into an inning ending double-play.

Emmaus busted the game open in the bottom of the fifth and again it was Foley doing much of the damage. Cichocki led off with a single and went to second on when a ground ball off the bat of Joe Capri was misplayed for an error.

One out later, Zak Zgura singled to load the bases and Foley quickly emptied them with a double off the fence in center field. Keegan Nytz singled home Foley with a ground ball down the third base line to make it 6-2.

Lower Macungie didn’t ease up on the pressure though, scoring a run in the sixth and two in the seventh. Todd Moxey was on second for Lower Macungie in the seventh with just one out, but Schrader regrouped and got the final two outs to preserve the win.

Emmaus coach Tom Cichocki has been excited by the talent that the Emmaus varsity team had this past season and would have preferred to be able to keep the players together, but admits that splitting them up does add some interest.

“This is a fun day,” said Tom Cichocki as the two teams enjoyed a picnic in between games. “I know they’re probably not feeling great right now, but overall, I think it will go down as a good day.

There’s a little chatter during the game and they all want to win, so it’s hard from that point. Plus, they’ve knocked us out of the playoffs the last two years, so that’s been a little tough to take on our end.”

Emmaus has been hampered by injuries throughout the season, and while it may get some players back for the playoffs, there’s not likely to be a lot of help coming.

“We’re hurt and have a lot of guys playing out of position, so from that point, it’s been a struggle, but that’s legion baseball,” said Cichocki. “We may get a couple of guys back and we might be able to add a pitcher for the playoffs, which would help, but we’re not figuring on getting too many guys back, at least not right now.”

Alex Christman recently had a cast removed and might be able to add help off the mound, but hasn’t been cleared to swing a bat, so Cichocki is hoping that he may be able to at least provide some innings off the mound.