Beginning this week, the task for the Northampton baseball was simple – win one game to qualify for districts.

The K-Kids (10-8, 8-8)accomplished that with a 6-5 win over Nazareth Tuesday night. Nick DiMieri drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in his first ever varsity at bat to push the Kids into euphoria and the postseason.

It may have sounded simple enough, but head coach Mick Sugra wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“We haven’t been consistent,” stated Sugra. “That’s one thing we have been striving for all season. We just haven’t been able to get a streak going. The team at the end playing consistent baseball will be the team on top.

“We lost to Nazareth and Whitehall earlier, and beat Emmaus. We’ll have three games in three-straight days. We’ll see how it plays out.”

One factor that could continue to work against the Kids has been some misfortune.

“We have been good in the field,” said Sugra. “We have been hitting the ball hard, but right at people. We easily could be hitting .320 instead of .315 as a team. “

Sugra does like his chances with his staff of Kyle Serman, Nick DiMieri and Matt Hutchings.

“Kyle (Serman) has really established himself,” said Sugra. “He has pitched some great baseball and has really grown as a pitcher. He had some hard luck in a 5-2 loss to Parkland where we made some errors behind him.

“DiMieri threw a two-hitter recently against Emmaus, and he has pitched the big games all year for us. Hutchings threw a good game against Easton, and he had a nice streak going.”

Offensively, Jared Angerman continues to be a force as he began the week hitting over .500. Ian Luberti also has been a major factor, as he has been the Kids’ top RBI man all season long.

Sugra hopes to get outfielder Shane Aster back soon as he is battling a broken pinky finger. Shortstop Jon Miller also recently went down with an injury.

Sugra was confident his team could get back to the postseason for the sixth-consecutive year and the Kids did well with that with a dramatic Tuesday night victory.

“We’ll have three tough games in a row,” said Sugra. “We know what we have to do, but we can’t take anything for granted. We believe we can come out of this with what we need and more.”