The Emmaus softball team had 10 days to think about avenging its first-round league playoff loss to Pleasant Valley.

Thanks to their seeding in the District 11 playoffs, the Hornets met the Bears in the quarterfinal round of that tournament and exacted the revenge they sought.

Emmaus ended Pleasant Valley’s season with a 9-2 win Thursday that puts the No. 2 seed Hornets in the District 11 Class 6A semifinals.

“The difference was,” said Emmaus head coach Rich Giering, “we had a nice talk on [after the first-round EPC loss to PV]. The intensity level has to pick up. If you don’t, a team you are favored to beat, you leave them hang around and you never know.”

Emmaus (18-4) left no doubt last Thursday when it hosted the No. 7 seed Bears (15-8) in districts.

The Hornets grabbed a lead in the first inning when Molly Yard reached base on an error and advanced to third on Brianna Amey’s first of three hits in the game. Yard scored on Sadie Haefeli’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead three batters into the game.

Pleasant Valley’s Kaylin Getz pitched her way out of that first-inning jam with just one run of damage. She also allowed base runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the next two innings and came away unscathed.

Emmaus broke the game open with an 8-run fourth inning.

The Hornets sent 12 batters to the plate in the fourth inning. They loaded the bases with one out in the inning before RBI singles from Yard and Amey knocked in a pair of runs.

Two more runs came in on a Pleasant Valley error and another two scored on Abby Derr’s double for a 7-0 lead.

Taylor Gitski, who led off the inning by reaching base on an error, returned to the plate and doubled to knock in another run. Taylor Bruckler brought in another with a double to cap the Emmaus scoring.

“We were really hyped to get back at them,” said Amey. “We knew if we played our game then we would be 100 percent on it and we were. We stuck with it and we changed our momentum and changed our mentality and it worked for us.”

The Bears got a run each in the fifth and sixth innings to avoid the shutout.

Hornet pitcher Autumn Held allowed just two hits over five innings and saw only two balls leave the infield before exiting the game with an eight-run advantage.

“I don’t really worry about her too much,” said Giering. “We just have to make sure our defense is playing good. When we played them the last time, we had a five at-bat stretch where we had three errors.”

Amey led the Emmaus offense in the win, going 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored. Derr was 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs and a run. Bruckler went 2 for 3 and knocked in one run.

Emmaus moved on to compete in Tuesday’s district semifinals against No. 3 Liberty. That game was played after Press deadline. For more about the game see next week’s edition.

While none of the top four seeds made it to the EPC finals, and only one got through the quarterfinal round, the district tournament has come out much more chalky as the top four seeds all reached the semifinals.

The winner of the Liberty-Emmaus game will face either No. 1 Nazareth or No. 4 Freedom in the title game, slated for Thursday with a time and place to be announced. The game will likely be played at Pates Park in the evening.