Last season, Emmaus downed Pleasant Valley in the East Penn Conference finals to win the league championship. During the regular season this year, the Hornets beat the Bears 13-2. Last week, the two teams had another meeting, this time in the quarterfinals of the EPC tournament and again, Emmaus ruled the day gaining a 10-0 win over their opponents from the north.

The Emmaus offense just kept adding on throughout the game and Luke Deschenes continued his mastery of Pleasant Valley, allowing just three hits and one walk in the latest win.

The game plan for the Bears was to get an early run or two against Deschenes and in the second inning, they put runners on first and second with two outs, but Deschenes notched a strikeout to end the inning unscathed.

Likewise, Nate Moskosky, starting for Pleasant Valley, kept Emmaus off the board in the first, but ran into some issues in the second inning.

With one out, Deschenes walked and Josiah Williams singled. Another walk by Colin Wilson was followed by an RBI single off the bat of Jaden Gallagher and one out later, Dominick Chiego brought in two more runs with a single to right, making it 3-0 Emmaus. An inning later, the Hornets opened the inning with back-to-back singles from Anthony Viola and Deschenes before Williams struck again, opening the game up with a double to drive in both runners and make it a 5-0 game.

“The team’s energy was high coming in and after that, I think it was especially high,” said Williams, a sophomore. “We’re not overconfident and we’re not just walking into games thinking that we are going to blow teams out, but we know we can do the job and we are all on board.”

The Hornets were not done yet in the third, with walk to Gallagher followed by a single from Zach McEllroy making it 6-0 and ending the day for Moskosky. Ryan Kymer came on in relief and had control issues, hitting Chiego and then surrendering a bases-loaded walk to Tyler LePage as the Hornets went up 8-0.

“I think no matter who the team is, no matter what the situation is, we just do not let go and give teams chances. We just keep pushing,” said Williams.

Gallagher saved a run with his defense in the fourth when Pleasant Valley had two runners on with two outs and Jake Gethen hit a long fly ball that appeared headed for the gap until Gallagher poured on the speed and ran it down for the third out of the inning.

The Bears still were not done and came back in the fifth with a one-out single from Austin Ratti and one out later, Dominic Ryan reached on a fielding error to put runners on first and second. Deschenes then got a slow ground ball to first and was able to cover the bag in time to take the toss from first baseman Colin Foley for the final out of the inning.

Kymer again looked to hold down the potent Emmaus offense in the fifth, but Gallagher led off with a single and McEllroy walked. One out later, LePage singled to make it 9-0 before Foley worked a walk to load the bases. Blake Walters came on in relief and with his first pitch, hit Viola to force across the final run, giving Emmaus a 10-run rule win over the Bears to advance to the semis.

“We had some timely hitting and just put some things together and eventually, we started getting crooked numbers,” said Emmaus head coach Jeremy Haas. “We just kept building and building and kept talking about getting more and more and how it wasn’t enough. We were able to get out of here after five innings and save some pitching, so it was a nice win for us.

“Luke (Deschenes) was on fire today and was pounding the zone. It’s kind of what we have come to expect from him.”

The Hornets, who were the EPC and District 11 champions last season, advance to face Parkland at De Sales University in a conference semifinals game. The Trojans knocked off Northampton 4-1 in their quarterfinal game.