So far this season, the Emmaus baseball team is clicking on all cylinders. The season started with the Hornets holding their opponents scoreless for 20 straight innings until Dieruff broke through for a run in a game won by Emmaus 9-1. Easton finally did some damage to Emmaus pitching, but with the Hornets offense running wild, the Hornets came away with a 9-7 win over the Red Rovers and are now 5-0 overall and 3-0 in Lehigh Valley Conference play.

When Dieruff finally put up the first run of the season against Emmaus, it was an unearned one. The streak of innings without allowing an earned run stretched to 25 before Easton got to starter Luke Miller for two first inning runs.

Easton was able to hit pitchers Miller and Jack Moore, which was surprising, considering that Miller is considered one of the best pitchers in the LVC and Moore has been excellent in a relief role for Emmaus this season.

"No matter who you are, you're going to have games where the other guys get to your pitchers, but we've got our offense going, so we're able to escape some of those games," said coach John Schreiner.

One of the keys for the Emmaus pitching staff has been control. Josh LeMaster, who had opened his season with a one-hit shutout of Wilson, struck out six in five innings against Dieruff, allowing just one walk. Joel Bartoni came on and threw two shutout innings, striking out two and walking one.

Bartoni has also been swinging a hot bat, going 6-for-8 with five RBI in the two games over this past week. Bartoni has taken over the everyday catching duties from Dan Findlay, who has moved to center field. Bartoni has also found himself on the mound, with his two shutout innings against Dieruff.

Schreiner has been moving players into different roles during the season in an effort to optimize the team's offense and get strong fundamental play defensively.

"We're trying some different things. We've got some guys who can help us at different spots, so we're taking advantage of that and also trying to get at-bats for guys," said Schreiner.

Jason Fatzinger has gone 4-for-7 with three runs scored and two RBI over the past week and Zach Fotta chipped in with two hits and two RBI in addition to scoring three times against Easton.

Emmaus has games against LVC opponents Northampton, Nazareth and Central Catholic over the next week. Northampton and Nazareth have both gotten out of the gate slowly, but Central Catholic is off to a 2-0 start in LVC play and has a 3-3 overall record on the season. The game with Central Catholic will be part of the LVC Day at Coca-Cola Park Saturday when the league plays their games at the home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

The Hornets will hope to return to Coca-Cola Park later in the season, with the announcement that the District 11 Championship will be played there, determining who not only wins the district title, but goes on to play in the PIAA Tournament this summer.