(CONTINUED)

 

Still…
    “We stink, we are really young,” Hewlings said, somewhat sarcastically. “Our strength is our junior and sophomore class. That’s a credit to Andy. He had kids in the program, and I trying not to screw it up.”
    This year there are 28 teams headed to the EPSLA playoffs, 24 automatic berths and four wild card selections. Last year Emmaus was 15-5 and fell to Garnet Valley in the pigtail round, 14-6, and this year Hewlings is hoping for more.
    “I feel strongly that we needed to schedule good teams, so we did add Springfield and we lost to Ridley, 8-4,” said Hewlings. “We added scrimmages against Malvern Prep, Haverford School and Conestoga and we took our lumps.
    “We made it very clear to the kids that this is where we want to be. We need to close the gap and compete against those schools. The kids took it well, they are not awed by anybody. They certainly respect that we need to be better to be called one of top teams in the state, but they are willing to work at it.”