For Northampton, unfortunately, the third time wasn’t the time.

The Konkrete Kids met Parkland for the third time this season, this latest time around in the quarterfinal round of the East Penn Conference playoffs Monday afternoon.

The seventh-seeded Kids couldn’t turn the trick, as they fell 4-0 to the second-seeded Trojans. Earlier in their two regular season meetings, the Kids were also blanked on both occasions, 8-0 on April 11, and 3-0 on May 8.

Their latest defeats left the Kids with an overall 15-6 mark. They will await a PIAA Class 6A district game, likely May 24.

In the last game against Parkland, Northampton was limited to three hits by Parkland’s Michael Jenkins, who beat the Kids for the third time this season. Mike Ettl started for Northampton and allowed all four runs in four innings of work. The Kids left six runners on base.

“He’s (Jenkins) a great pitcher,” said Northampton head coach Mick Sugra. “We knew we would likely face him and we have to be their best. He (Jenkins) had allowed three earned runs in 40-plus innings.

“We knew we would have a challenge, but we haven’t swung the bats against them. We had some opportunities in the other games against them as well as this one, but we didn’t take advantage of them.

“Facing them this time around, we thought we would be able to change things.”

Sugra noted how the team lost a conference seed, possibly as high as second, when they dropped a 6-4 decision to Nazareth May 10. There were five teams in the EPC playoffs with a record of 12-5, and the Kids entered with an 11-6 mark. Two days earlier, they suffered the 3-0 defeat to Parkland. Prior to the Parkland game, the Kids had won seven of eight games.

“The Nazareth game was definitely a letdown game for us,” said Sugra. “We really didn’t have one the entire year. We didn’t play and we made a bunch of errors. We didn’t get any big hits in the game and we had plenty of opportunities.

“That loss cost us a higher seed in the conference playoffs.”

The Kids, however, finished second in the District 11 power rankings and will likely host ninth-seeded Easton in the opening round next Wednesday in the 10-team field. Ironically, Parkland finished fifth in the bracket.

“Getting to districts was one of our main goals all season,” added Sugra, whose team clinched a spot earlier this season. “We thought we could get to next round of the conference playoffs, but we will look to regroup and play deep into districts.”