The Emmaus softball season came to a rough end when Parkland used a six-run fifth inning and a two-run sixth inning to break open the meeting of the two rivals in the District 11 quarterfinal matchup, grabbing a 10-0 win.

The two teams battled through the first four innings, with Parkland pushing across two second-inning runs, but collecting just a hit and a walk outside of that inning.

Parkland's fifth inning opened on a somewhat controversial note. Pitcher Morgan Rentzheimer came to the plate and launched a pitch from Rachel Brown deep to left field, with the ball bouncing off the top of the wall and coming back onto the field of play. An umpire had run into the outfield and was waving his hands and reportedly yelled "stop," causing confusion for left fielder Cassidy Sullivan, who held onto the ball as Rentzheimer circled the bases.

"In the fifth inning, we started to give things away and it all started with that ball that hit off the fence," said coach John Eyer. "No offense to the umpire, but he shouldn't be saying anything. He was yelling 'stop, stop, stop,' and she did. She didn't know what to do, because we're yelling 'throw it in.' Everything kind of fell apart then."

Emmaus seemed to be mounting a comeback in the top of the fifth inning when they were trailing 2-0. Morgan Patterson walked and Anna Snyder singled to open the inning and were both bunted over by Brown. Claire Harris then walked to load the bases, but Rentzheimer was able to work out of the jam.

Sullivan led the team, collecting two of the team's four hits.

Earlier in the week, Miryah Palko, a junior, was chosen as the team's MVP. For Palko, the loss was a disappointing end to the season, but she believes the team will have enough weapons to bounce back next season.

"It's actually very disappointing, Palko said. "This is not the way that I wanted to end the season and I couldn't even believe that we played the way that we did.

"It's honestly embarrassing to me, because I know that's not how we play. We let them run all over us and we threw the ball around and we didn't hit."

The fact that Palko had won the team's MVP award came as a bit of a surprise to her. She is already looking forward to her senior season both in softball and basketball.

"I was obviously honored to get it, because I didn't expect at all to get it. It means a lot," said Palko, who has just a few days off before starting her work for next year's basketball season. "Summer league starts next Tuesday [May 28], so I'll be getting into that and then coming back here again for softball."

The team will lose all three outfielders (Sullivan, Anna Snyder and Kayla Higley) to graduation, along with catcher Lizzy Natiello and first baseman Franni Schaeffer. Eyer saluted those players and knows it's not going to be easy to fill their shoes, but he believes the team has some potential talent to plug in along the way.

"They've been great for the program," said Eyer. "They're leaders and they've worked hard all season, even today. Cass [Sullivan] had two hits. They were all pushing and trying to get the team motivated and we're definitely going to miss them. I think we'll be able to fill the holes and we'll see how it goes until next year, but this is a tough way to go out this year."