The high school baseball season was supposed to get underway last week, but as often happens with spring sports, the weather didn’t cooperate. For the Green Hornets, getting back onto the field is something they’ve been anticipating since they went 12-4 in the East Penn Conference and 16-6 overall last season, reaching the conference semifinals. The team has 12 seniors on the roster, giving it lots of experience for new head coach Jeremy Haas.

Haas takes over for Mike Mihalik, who stepped down last fall because of the time constraints of a new work position. The change won’t be too dramatic for the players, since Haas and Mihalik have a long history together going back to their days at Southern Lehigh.

“We should have a really good team this year, so as long as I stay out of the way and let them progress the way they need to progress, we should have a really good season,” said Haas of his first run as a head baseball coach.

Haas will bring a similar style to the team from what Mihalik brought.

“It’s not going to be too different,” Haas said. “Mike and I were both coaches under Todd Miller at Southern Lehigh and I’ve been coaching underneath him or with him for a lot of years, so a lot of his style has rubbed off on me, so we’re pretty much the same.”

Among the 12 senior players are two Division 1 recruits in pitcher Kellan Tullio and third baseman Wyatt Henseler. Tullio, a left-hander, has signed with Louisville and Henseler has given a verbal commitment to play baseball at the University of Pennsylvania. Both players look to make an impact in their senior season and neither is taking his foot off the gas when it comes to leading Emmaus deep into the postseason.

“Their talent levels are high, plus, they focus on getting better every single day, which is refreshing, because when your better players are trying to get better, it kind of sets the bar for the rest of the team,” said Haas.

Even with all of the returning talent, two questions remain for the Hornets. First, who is going to take over for Gunnar Schichtl at second base and will they be able to find enough depth to take them from being a very good team to being a great team capable of winning both the EPC and the District 11 championships.

“It’s a good mix,” said Haas. “I’m really happy with where my defense is at. I’m really happy with the pitching depth we have, the offensive depth. Obviously, depth is a big part of a team and that’s what we’re focusing on and hoping to find those nonseniors who will be contributing. The newcomers will be a lot of role players. A lot of our starters are back, so it’s all about filling out the lineup card.”

A roster filled with 12 seniors and 10 juniors and just one sophomore, could get a little unwieldy at times.

It also leaves open the question of getting experience for players who will be taking over next season and even beyond that. It’s something that Haas has paid attention to and is already sorting out for upcoming seasons.

“There’s always a fine line between getting wins this year and having guys get experience for next year, so the roster construction has been difficult,” Haas said. “Obviously, with a lot of returning guys and a lot of seniors, there’s not necessarily a lot of playing time for young guys, so we have to get them in where we can. We have our depth charts for 2020 already, so I think we have to focus on just doing the best that we can.”

The team has decided to change its home field back to playing at Church Lane for the 2019 season, with the exception of a late -eason game that will take place at Emmaus Community Park.

The move was the result of Lower Macungie Township replacing the batting cages at the field and putting in a new bullpen for the upcoming season.

Other work has been done to make Church Lane, which was the home of the team for a number of years, better suited for high school baseball.