Last year Northampton's softball team won the District 11 championship by doing it the hard way.

This year's Konkrete Kids have to do it the same way.

Last year's Northampton girls went 19-1 during the regular season, but lost to Emmaus in the Lehigh Valley Conference semifinals before rebounding to win the 4A District title.

This year's Kids, handled by first-year coach Kevin Mann, went 15-5 in the regular season, but lost to Parkland in the LVC semifinals.

The Konkrete Kids, who have lost four of their last six games now, were shut out by Parkland 10-0 Monday night at Patriots Park, and the Trojans will play Emmaus (5-4 winner over Liberty) in the LVC title game Thursday.

For Northampton, Monday's loss was the third at the hands of Parkland - all shutouts.

The unbeaten Trojans (19-0) blanked Northampton 7-0 and 5-0 during the regular season with senior Morgan Rentzheimer doing the pitching in all three games.

Northampton, which went 10-4 in the LVC, won its season finale with a 2-1 decision over Nazareth with Kendel Reed driving in both runs.

The 10-4 mark tied Bethlehem Catholic's record, but Northampton got the league's wild-card spot by virtue of the Kids' regular season 3-1 win over Becahi.

District 11's playoffs begin next week and all four LVC North Division teams [Northampton, Whitehall, Parkland, and Nazareth] will be contenders along with Emmaus, Liberty, and Easton. Becahi will play in the 3A tourney, giving the LVC eight teams in District 11 action.

So, Northampton's work is cut out before the Kids, just as last year's team did under the now retired coach Sally Whittaker-Kahan.