Northampton head coach Mick Sugra has been waiting for his team to put together a sense of consistency, as his club has hovered around the .500 mark all season.

He also has been waiting for one of his pitcher to provide a complement to senior Garrett Kunkel, who has been a mainstay on the mound all season.

Kunkel provided another solid outing Monday afternoon when he scattered seven hits and struck out six in his team's 4-1 victory over Allentown Central Catholic that lifted the Kids back over the .500 mark with a 7-6 slate.

In the victory, Dane Hooven drove in a pair of runs and Matt Durich added another as the duo has been part of an effective hitting nucleus this year.

"Garrett (Kunkel) has been the guy who we have relied upon this season," said Sugra. "He (Kunkel) has pitched his share of big games for us. We were looking for a guy to step up and grab the number one spot on our staff and it appears Garrett (Kunkel) is that guy."

Before the victory over Central, the Kids had dropped three consecutive games to Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom, and Stroudsburg respectively by a combined deficit of 28-6. Before the losing streak, the Kids had won four of their last fives games.

"We know Stroudsburg is a very good team out of our conference and teams like Becahi, Freedom and any other team in our conference is always a battle," said Sugra. "We faced some good pitchers in those games, but that is no excuse.

"Every game, pitching is key, hitting is key, and defense is key. All of those elements have to be there for us to be successful. Our pitching has to be consistent for us.

"There are no easy games in the (Lehigh Valley Conference). Every team seems to be right in the thick of things. We need to find some consistent pitchers to follow Garrett in the rotation."

With seven games left in the regular season that began with a contest against Allen Wednesday, Sugra is optimistic his team can piece together a run or maintain a .500 or better record to advance to the district round.

"We think we can be better than a .500 team, but maybe that's where we will be," offered Sugra. "We knew this would be a bit of a transition year for us in some ways. We have plenty of solid bats up and down our lineup, and we expect it to stay that way.

"We need our pitching to take another step for us to move forward to another level."