The Northampton softball team ended their regular season on a high note last Wednesday afternoon with a home win over Nazareth High School.

The team ended their regular season with a winning record and a five-game winning streak but stumbled in the East Penn Conference Tournament with a first-round loss to Bethlehem Catholic. The team’s season does not end there, however, as the squad is back to practice this week and preparing to meet some tough competitors head-on as District 11 Championships start next week.

The past week has been a story of highs and lows for the girls. On Wednesday, May 9, the team ran through district powerhouse Nazareth with the confidence of 13 prior wins behind them. The team’s strong offense and discipline at the plate helped Northampton drive in six runs, allowing the Nazareth batters to cross home plate only once.

Northampton’s Heather Alich led the Kids by driving in three. Alich’s totals for the night included a home run and a double. Pitcher Maddie Biechy showed once again that her talents extend even off the pitcher’s mound as she tallied an RBI and a double. Hannah Boggs also helped to drive up the Northampton score with an RBI of her own.

Biechy would get the final win of the regular season with five strikeouts and only one walk. The Northampton girls had a strong game overall, holding Nazareth, the top seed in the EPC which would eventually lose to Liberty, to just one run.

“We played our game. We scored six runs against the best pitcher we are going to face so we should be able to do that every time,” said Northampton’s head coach, Kristy Henritzy, who ended her first regular season as with a 14-4 winning record.

After ending the season on a five-game winning streak, the Northampton girls fell to Bethlehem Catholic in round one of the East Penn Conference Tournament on Monday evening at home, after weather postponed the start over the weekend.

The 6-1 Northampton loss did not tell the story of two teams that were seeded close in this tournament (Northampton was the 4th seed and Bethlehem Catholic was seeded 5th).

Northampton led for the first several innings of the game but Bethlehem Catholic put a lot of pressure on Northampton’s defense and kept the Kids lead to just one run.

According to Henritzy, the team took an important lesson from this defeat.

“Moving forward, all the teams we face are going to be good; we need to be ready to play the entire game,” as Henritzy explained the focus of the team in practice this week will be all about getting back to the fundamentals and building back some confidence the team had during the winning streak that ended their season.

“We had such a good streak – we played Parkland and Nazareth really tough. They were big wins for us. We need to get back to what we know we’re capable of doing.”

At press time, Northampton is preparing for District 11 Championship which begin next week.