The Emmaus baseball team successfully defended one title last week. It will get another title defense underway this week.

The Hornets came from behind to beat Nazareth 6-5 in extra innings last Thursday to win their second straight East Penn Conference championship. They will begin defending their 2021 district title this week as the top seed in the Class 6A bracket.

The No. 3 seed Hornets (19-4) trailed the No. 5 Blue Eagles 3-0 after two innings and 4-1 after four last Thursday in the league title game, but they came back to take a 5-4 lead before Nazareth (16-7) sent the game to extra innings with a run in the seventh. Emmaus won the game with a run in the 10th inning just before the game was going to be suspended at 11:30 p.m. because of a curfew at DeSales University’s Weiland Park.

“It was a weird game,” said Emmaus head coach Jeremy Haas. “It was ugly early and really tight late. Our guys showed some real perseverance and stubbornness and just stuck with it. It took the whole line up tonight and it took every single guy grinding it out.”

Zach McEllroy started the Emmaus 10th inning with a single, the first lead-off base runner for the Hornets since the sixth inning. McEllroy made his way to third on Colin Foley’s two-out single.

A confident Noah Hogan came to the plate and hit a slow ground ball that the Nazareth second baseman couldn’t gather before Hogan was able to race down the line safely to allow McEllroy to score on the error, the Eagles’ sixth of the game.

“I told [teammate Andrew] Viola I was going to win the game,” said Hogan. “I told him I was going to end it right there.

“That was an exceptional game. Hats off to those (Nazareth). They played great. We just never quit. We knew going into this game nobody wanted it more than us.”

Nazareth took the early lead with two runs in the first inning on a hit and two errors. The Eagles scored another in the second inning on three straight singles.

Emmaus got on the board in the third inning when Ryan Latchford scored on a Tyler LePage single to make it 3-1.

Nazareth added another run in the fourth on an error, a sacrifice bunt and a single by Aiden Butz (2-for-5, run, RBI).

The Hornets made it 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth when Hogan singled with one out and scored on a passed ball. Jackson Merk also scored that inning after walking and coming in on Jaden Gallagher sacrifice fly.

Emmaus took the lead in the sixth inning. Three straight singles from Dominick Chiego, McEllroy and Viola started the inning. Chiego came in on Viola’s hit before McEllroy scored as Nazareth was turning a double play that limited the damage for Nazareth pitcher Jake Dally, who threw six innings and allowed just six hits and two earned runs while striking out seven batters and walking just one.

“He’s a challenge for all of us,” said McEllroy, who went 3-for-5 and scored twice in the win. “He’s throwing mid-to-high 80s and his curveball is deadly. But we prepped and we saw those curveballs before we got in here. I think we were well prepared for all of it.”

“He’s as good as advertised,” said Haas. “We knew we had to be in for a battle. We weathered the storm and weathered the storm and kept making pitches and found a way.”

The Blue Eagles tied the game in the seventh when Butz walked and scored on Aaron Leopold’s two-out triple to the left-field fence.

Emmaus went three-up, three-down in the bottom of the seventh, but had runners on base in the eighth and ninth innings before scoring the game-winner in the 10th inning.

“This team, they’re just a bunch of great players,” said LePage, who went 2-for-5 in the game. “I’m so p round of these guys. This is such a great team win. It took all 23 guys. It wasn’t just the guys on the field. The guys doing charts and tendencies, staying engaged. The little things go a long way and it’s something I really appreciate about these guys.”

LePage pitched the last three innings for Emmaus and didn’t allow a hit while striking out six and dishing out four walks.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” he said. “But I’ve been there before so I just have to relax and take a deep breath and just worry about me and the catcher.

Chiego has caught for me for 12 years now. I have all the confidence in the world that he’s going to make the right calls back there.”

Colin Foley got the start for Emmaus, allowing seven hits and one earned run over five-and-a-third innings.

Chiego (2-for-5) was one of three Hornets with two or more hits in the game.

The defending district champ Hornets move on to the district tournament as the No. 1 seed and will take on Stroudsburg in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round. The winner will face either No. 4 Nazareth or No. 5 Northampton in a semifinal on Sunday, May 25 back at DeSales University.

The district title game is slated for DeSales on June 1 at 7 p.m.