The Emmaus softball team traveled to Parkland High School recently looking to break a four-game losing streak against the Lady Trojans. Thanks to top-notch pitching and a little timely hitting, the Lady Hornets broke the streak in a dramatic way with a 2-0 win in eight innings.

The win came because of a few key plays and an impressive performance on the mound from junior Danika Barthol, who pitched all eight innings and held the Trojans (6-3 overall, 5-2 EPC) to six hits while striking out 10 batters in the game, seven of which came against the four, five and six hitters in the Parkland batting order.

The rivalry between the two teams is ongoing and the Emmaus players knew that they owed a little payback to their friends a short drive down Cedar Crest Boulevard.

“I personally set out what games I wanted and what games I was working my butt off for and this was definitely the one,” said Barthol, who was injured when the two teams met last season. “This was a big game for me, and I think for the rest of us, too.”

Neither offense was able to do much throughout the game, with Barthol and Parkland starter Ashlyn Hillanbrand keeping hitters off pace. Parkland left the bases loaded in the third and Emmaus (8-2, 6-1) put a runner in scoring position in the fourth before they also loaded them in the fifth only to strand all three runners on base.

Hillanbrand set down seven straight batters until Daria Krout reached on an error by Hillanbrand to start the eighth. One out later, Mason Roselli singled to left center field and another error allowed Krout to come home while Roselli raced to second. A third error in the inning allowed Roselli to score an insurance run and put Emmaus up 2-0.

In the bottom of the eighth, Barthol, who had retired six straight hitters before taking the mound for the last three outs, put the Lady Trojans down in order again to preserve the shutout and get the win for Emmaus.

The eighth-inning runs snapped a scoreless inning streak for Hillanbrand at 27 1/3 innings.

“They were being aggressive at the plate today, so it helped me out in the long run,” said Barthol, who had a sharp riser and good velocity throughout the game. “Not giving up when I get deep in a count has been a key for me. I trust my pitching coach a lot and last year I wasn’t as confident in my pitching, but the pitching coach has restored my confidence, so I just believe in him and my catcher.”

A key play in the game came in the bottom of the fifth inning. Barthol struck out the first two batters and it looked like the inning was going to go by quietly until Jenna Piatkiewicz singled and stole second. Cassidy Sweeney stepped to the plate and singled to left-center field, allowing Piatkiewicz to race toward the plate. A terrific throw from Shayla Morgan easily caught the runner at the plate to end the threat.

“We work on that in practice and even in pregame,” said Emmaus head coach Rich Giering of the throw from Morgan to the plate. “We tell them that we don’t want the cuts, because our outfielders know where we want the throws to be, so we work on that. There’s an example of where we needed that throw, and it was on one hop and perfect.”

Emmaus rode the momentum of the win to a 15-0 win over Pocono Mountain East (3-6, 3-6) the following day. Emmaus and Parkland meet again early next month, but there are a couple of other games before that circled on Barthol’s calendar. Emmaus has road games at unbeaten Northampton (8-0, 7-0) on April 26 and then plays at Whitehall (7-2, 5-2) on the 30th. Emmaus beat Whitehall 3-2 in early April before falling to Northampton 2-0 six days later.