Northampton head baseball coach Mick Sugra knows his team not only got a big lift with their improving pitching in two recent wins, but they also possibly rid themselves of a mental block along the way.

The Kids ended last week with a 7-6 win over Dieruff and also a 4-2 win over Nazareth that proved to be as therapeutic as anything to their cause. Nazareth has been a major pothole in the Kids' road to success in their Lehigh Valley Conference play and other factors through the years.

The pair of wins lifted the Kids over the .500 mark (7-6) for the season.

"That win was huge for us," said Sugra about his team's win over Nazareth at Coca-Cola Park annual play day. "I hope it lifted that proverbial monkey off our backs against them. Even though they are not the same team due to graduation losses, it is still good for us to beat them especially with conference play.

"It was also a game in which we got a strong and needed pitching effort."

Senior Garrett Kunkel, who had the most previous innings logged by any starter coming into this season, beautifully twirled a six-hitter in the victory over Nazareth. Kunkel pitched out of a 2-0 hole and shut down Nazareth over the last five innings.

"Garrett (Kunkel) has been our most consistent pitcher," said Sugra. "He (Kunkel) has the most experience of anyone on the staff. We really don't have a number one guy on the staff, but he will be the guy we will count on to be out there every fourth day.

"We know we can rely on him the rest of the way."

Pitching has been an evolving situation for the Kids all season. However, Sugra believes his staff is starting to round into shape.

"Our pitching has to keep eliminating walks and hit batsmen," said Sugra. "That's what happened to us against Dieruff (7-6 win). We had eight walks and three hit batsmen. We have pitchers who didn't throw a lot of varsity innings last season and they are learning along the way.

"They need to stay consistent and not put more pressure on our offense to score runs. We don't want to have to win too many 7-6 games."

Offensively, the Kids have been consistent all season. The Kids have been led by the consistent core of Cody Kramer, Mark Szoke, Harley Davidson, Matt Durich, Evan Grube, Dane Hooven, and Jeff Wesolowski, the latter who has hit nearly .500 all season.

The Kids hosted Bethlehem Catholic Tuesday, along with Stroudsburg this week, and travel to Freedom. It could be the time when everything begins to fall into place.

"Those guys have been doing it all year for us," said Sugra. "We have been hitting the ball well. If we can keep our pitching consistent and keep our hitting going, we should be able to hit on all cylinders."