Everything that led up to the final innings of last week’s East Penn Conference final prepared the Emmaus baseball team for what it needed to do to hold on and win this year’s title.

The Hornets had played several close games during the six-game winning streak they took into the title game. They also played the entire season without one of the best pitchers in league, learning to win while adhering to the team motto of ‘21 clean outs.’

The Hornets were clinging to a 2-1 lead in last Wednesday’s league title game when Braden Waller made his first appearnace of the season. He relieved teammate Luke Deschenes with one out, runners on first and second base and a 2-0 count to Pleasant Valley’s No. 3 hitter, Zach Walters.

Waller struck out Walters and cleanup hitter Jack Smale to end the threat. He pitched two more perfect innings to seal a 4-1 win and the conference title.

“My goal was throw strikes,” Waller said of his first varsity action since 2019. “I don’t think I had everything today. Just focus down, make them hit the ball and have my fielders make a play on it. And that’s what they did.”

Not only did Waller put down every batter he faced, he also made a superb defense play. A wild pitch got past catcher Dom Chiego during the fifth inning. Chiego couldn’t locate the ball so Waller raced to the backstop to retrieve it, holding the Bears to just one base on the play.

He gathered up the ball right in front of a rowdy Pleasant Valley student section that didn’t seem to have much impact on Waller’s performance despite its best effort.

Emmaus head coach Jeremy Haas said Waller was the perfect person to pitch in that environtment.

“It’s another game,” said Waller. “You have to look at it that way. Just throw strikes and get outs and work together.”

He had been throwing and increasing his workload recently, but Waller was not told before the game he might finally get to step on the mound.

Deschenes, who walked three batters and hit four others, had only given up two hits in the game, but when his command seemed to be waning after four innings, Haas knew who to turn to.

“In the fourth inning coach said do you want to throw and I said yes,” said Waller, whose three-run home run in the semifinals against Parkland helped put Emmaus in the title game. “It felt good to be back. I miss pitching.”

Emmaus played error-free defense, including a pair of double plays that helped Deschenes get out of jams. The junior allowed more baserunners than he wanted to, but he kept the Bears from getting big hits.

“Happy with the results,” he said. “Just wish I could have gone a little longer for my team.”

Deschenes was pleasantly surprised to see who was going to be relieiving him.

“I saw him warming up and it gave me a boost of confidence,” said Deschenes. “I knew I was going to get pulled soon, but I knew Waller was going to get the job done.”

Emmaus took the lead in the third inning when Blake Schantz led off with a single and moved to third on a single from Andrew O’Brien. Both runners scored on a Tyler LePage fielder’s choice and a Pleasant Valley error for a 2-0 lead.

The Bears, which left the bases loaded in the third inning, finally broke through for a run in the fifth.

A single and a hit batter put runners on first and second base. Brandon Ratti singled to make it 2-1 with one out. The go-ahead run was on first base with the heart of the Bears’ batting order coming to the plate.

When Deschenes started Walters with a 2-0 count, Haas made the switch.

“He has a big game personality and he did big things for us today,” said Haas.

The Hornets added two more runs in the sixth inning when Waller led off with a singled, moved to second on a Colin Foley bunt and scored on a Chiego single. Pinch runner Cohen Schadler came around to score on a fielder’s choice for the 4-1 lead.

It was more than enough for Waller, who finished the game with a four-pitch stirke out for the final out.

Emmaus had won its last three games of the regular season by one run each then beat Bethlehem Catholic in the first round of leagues by just a run. Their 9-6 win over Parkland in the semifinals might have felt closer than a three-run margin.

“We’ve been tough throughout every single game we won,” said Deschenes. “We won so many close games.

“This has been a crazy season. We’ve faced a lot of challenges during the season. We didn’t have Braden Waller pitch until today. We had other guys injured. We had to battle through that all season. That prepared us and made us mentally tough enough to go out here and win three games in a row during conference playoffs.”

O’Brien, Waller and Chiego had two hits each in the title game, while Schantz was 1-fpr-3 with two runs scored.

In the win over Parkland last Tuesday, Schantz went 2-for-4, LePage was 2-for-4 with a run and two RBIs and O’Brien was 1-for-3 but walked once and scored three times. Waller was 1-for-2 with two runs scored and four RBIs in the semifinal win.

Foley got the win against Parkland, throwing 84 pitches over 6 1/3 innings. He allowed seven hits and earned four runs while striking out six and walking none.

The Hornets took advantage of four Parkland errors and some baserunning miscues by the Trojans. Two of their errors came on potential double play balls.

Emmaus, which was the No. 3 seed for the league playoffs, earned the top seed for the District 11 Class 6A playoffs. They were scheduled to play No. 8 Pocono Mountain East in Tuesday’s first round, which was played after Press deadline.

“We are definitely peaking at the right time,” said Deschenes. “We’re always preparing for playoffs.”