Northampton developed patience and did everything they could to take the District 11 quarterfinal from Emmaus last week. Unfortunately, early in the game, Northampton struggled to find a comfort zone, committing six errors in four innings as Emmaus jumped out to an 8-1 lead and then held on to win 8-5, advancing to the semifinals and ending the season for the Konkrete Kids.

“You’re not going to win a baseball game in District 11 Playoffs with six errors. It started right from the get-go, on the first play of the game. We probably gave them the equivalent of an 11 or 12 inning game in terms of the outs that we gave them,” pointed out Mick Sugra, Northampton’s head coach.

The first play of the game was a diving stop by second baseman Jared Angerman, who then got up to make the throw, but threw wildly, allowing the runner to go to second. The inning also included a wild pitch, a hit batter and a walk that led to three Emmaus runs.

Down 5-0 going to the bottom of the third, Northampton took advantage of a leadoff triple from Timmy Antigua with a two-out RBI single from Brittain Shander making it a 5-1 lead. Emmaus slapped on three more runs in the fifth, while pitcher Matt Lanzone continued to keep Northampton off the board as Emmaus held an 8-1 lead going to the bottom of the seventh.

“He just kept us off balance, we just really didn’t hit the ball hard on him all day, except for that one leadoff triple. Otherwise, we didn’t hit the ball hard. He did his job of keeping us off balance to limit the damage and get the leadoff guys,” said Sugra.

In a decision that Emmaus coach Mike Mihalik probably regretted later, Lanzone was lifted after six innings, and it would take two Emmaus relievers to get through the final inning. Northampton stayed patient at the plate and took seven walks that led to four Northampton runs. Down 8-5, Northampton had the bases loaded with two outs, bringing the winning run to the plate, but Logan Foley struck out Dan Thomas for the final out of the game.

To some, Northampton overachieved this season, just missing a division title and playing well in the conference tournament. To the team and coaches though, they thought as early as last January that there might be something special about the 2017 season.

“We saw the potential and the work ethic when we started lifting and doing open gyms back in January, so we knew the potential was there,” said Sugra. “We told them that if they work hard and put their backs against the wall in the weight room, that’s going to pay dividends up on the baseball field and it did. Here at the end of the season, we ran into some good pitching and that’s the end of the year, just like that.”

The loss ended the high school career of the nine seniors on the Northampton roster. Sugra credited the senior class with helping the program to turn a corner that leaves them in a good position for the future.

“They did a tremendous job. This was the first time since 1998 that we finished the season with 15 wins. First time in two years that we qualified for East Penn Conference Tournament and the first time in a long time that we were two, three or four in the East Penn Conference power rankings all season. Nobody expected that coming in, a lot of people had us finishing last in the division and up until our last game with Parkland, we were number-one in the division,” noted Sugra. “We beat Emmaus twice during the regular season, that’s what hurts about today.”