During its final regular-season week, Whitehall’s softball team rode a wave of emotions. There also was plenty at stake for the team that just had one defeat before last week’s play.

“We knew one win would give us first place,” said head coach Jeff Vivian. “We also knew two wins would give us breathing space, and three wins would have really been a strong statement about the season.”

As it turned out, the Zephyrs came out with wins against Allentown Central Catholic and Northampton, and dropped a decision to Emmaus. It left them with an overall 18-2 slate for the regular season and a 15-1 mark in the East Penn Conference (EPC).

“After the win against Central (15-0) and wrapping up first place, we just walked into Emmaus,” noted Vivian about his team’s 6-0 defeat. “I knew that wasn’t going to be good enough. We just never were into the Emmaus game and that did not sit well with the staff and most of the players.”

From there, the Zephyrs met archrival Northampton. Whitehall had defeated them, 5-3, April 13, and wanted to end the season on a high note. They worked through a hard-fought, 3-2 victory.

“We knew we were better and we went out against Northampton and it showed,” stressed Vivian. “We fought harder, we didn’t take ABs (at-bats) off, we were focused and energetic. It was a great win to end the season, put us in the clubhouse, and we wait to see who we play this week.”

Sienna Meli led the regulars with a .467 average followed by Nye Brown (.406), Haley Bartosh (.385), and Kassy Aquino (.377). Through 20 games, the Zephyrs hit. 379 as a team. Bartosh had a team-high 23 RBIs, and Kate Yadush had 17.

On the mound, Aquino was 12-2 with a 2.32 ERA and Bartosh was 6-0 with a 2.42 ERA.

Whitehall will wait to see who they will play in the opening round of the EPC playoffs Thursday as seeds had not been released at press time. They are the top seed in the district Class 5A bracket as well.

As far as Vivian and his troops, it is a new season.

“We know the regular season record is meaningless,” he noted. “Everyone is 0-0 and we have one game to prove ourselves and earn another game. We come back hard this Monday and start installing the game plan and an intersquad scrimmage. We have just a couple changes and wrinkles we will be installing, but otherwise we focus on Thursday.”