Seventeen down and three to go!

That would be a good credo for Northampton's softball team.

The Konkrete Kids downed Liberty 3-1 Tuesday and clinched at least a tie for first place in the Lehigh Valley Conference's North Division.

Northampton's 17th-straight win moved the unbeaten K-Kids to 11-0 in the LVC with three games remaining - at Whitehall Thursday, at home with Parkland next Tuesday and at Nazareth next Thursday.

Coach Sally Whittaker-Kahan says her team, "is loose and isn't taking anything for granted. They're aware of their lofty record, but still take it inning-by-inning and game-by-game.

"Finishing unbeaten would be great," said Whittaker-Kahan. "But our girls are on an even keel and we can't let down."

Whittaker-Kahan attributes her team's steady play to, "perseverance; they don't waver."

Northampton, 17-0 overall including six nonleague wins, got to Liberty early with Leandra Sterner getting on base on error to lead off the game. She stole second, went to third on another error and scored on Taylor Kerbacher's groundout to short.

The Kids added another run in the third when Lauren Brosky doubled, moved to second on a groundout and came around to score on Kerbacher's single to left.

Northampton made it 3-0 in the sixth on Tori Gollie's double and an error on Bri Dalton's bunt single.

Liberty, which had three hits off Marly Laubach, got two of them to open the seventh but only one run was able to score as Laubach struck out the rest after an error. Laubach, who had a no-hitter against Allen last Wednesday and a one-hitter against Easton Friday, struck out nine Liberty hitters to boost her season total to 191 in 17 games.

In Northampton's 9-0 win at Allen, Hannah Peters went 2-for-4 and Kendra Makovsky was 2-for-4 with two RBI.

In the 10-0 win over Easton, Dalton was 1-for-3 with an RBI triple and Erin Tiwold was 2-for-4.

Against Liberty, Dalton had a triple in addition to her bunt single and Gollie and Brosky had doubles, while sterner and Kerbacher had singles as only on Konkrete Kid was a strikeout victim.