The defending Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 champion Emmaus High School baseball team has picked up right where it left off last season. The Green Hornets have won their first 10 games of the 2022 season, including six in the East Penn Conference.

Head coach Jeremy Haas is happy with how his team has been playing early on, but knows there are still areas where they can improve upon.

“We are 10-0 but far from perfect,” said Haas. “When you return as many starters as we did, you’re typically able to find your footing quicker than an inexperienced group. We have done well in all phases of the game, but our growth needs to continue. We have a long way to go.”

Emmaus has an experienced team back with a lot of talent. In a busy week of conference games last week with three games in four days before the holiday break, the Green Hornets defeated Pocono Mountain West and East Stroudsburg North, both on the road scoring double digit runs, and then took down Freedom at home last Thursday, 9-1. Like in the first two games, the Emmaus offense recorded a ton of hits and did not allow many, outhitting the Patriots 11-4 overall after beating PM West 13-6 and then ES North 17-0. Haas has enjoyed seeing how his pitchers and hitters have been dealing of late.

“Our team’s on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) is 1.056 and our team earned-run average (ERA) is 1.16, so some really good numbers in important areas of both sides,” Haas said. “It’s nearly impossible to pick even a handful of guys that are standouts. It has been a team effort in all 10 of our games we have played so far.”

Jaden Gallagher, Tyler LePage and Luke Deschenes all finished with two hits against the Patriots, including home runs from Zach McEllroy, Colin Foley and Deschenes.

Following a three-day break for Easter, Emmaus will have another tough stretch in its schedule with four games this week. The Green Hornets played a nonconference game at Hazleton Monday, hosted Pleasant Valley on Tuesday, travels to Easton Thursday before welcoming Central Catholic to Church Lane on Saturday to wrap up the week.

Staying undefeated is the goal, but Haas and his program know to not expect it.

“It’s always going to be the same things we talk about in our program,” said Haas. “We need to avoid complacency and we need to find our one percent growth every single day. If we can do those two things, we will trend in the right direction.”