Last Thursday’s EPC softball championship game is one that Northampton will gladly put in their rearview mirror as they were beaten 10-0 in 5 innings by Freedom.

The game started uneventfully with 1-2-3 half innings for both teams.

In the top of the second, the K-Kids played perhaps their worst inning in recent memory. Freedom pitcher Jen Slanovec led off with a home run to right field. Northampton then proceeded to make errors on the next three batters opening the floodgates to a 6-run inning that saw all three Kids’ pitchers make an appearance in the circle.

Brenna Ortwein hit a 3-run homer to center field to put the Patriots up 9-0 in the fourth inning.

Northampton got a leadoff double from Taylor Kranzley in the bottom of the fourth followed by a walk to Kate Stuhldreher to give a glimmer of hope for a comeback, but it was not to be.

Head coach Kristy Henritzy would not attribute the performance to nerves or adrenaline.

“It’s just one of those days,” she said. “We don’t make errors like that. We’ve played weird games against Freedom this year, lost 9-2, won 10-3, and now this.”

Her plan was to give the team some time off until Monday and try to regroup.

“They know they’re better than this. A little time away from the grind will help,” she said.

While the EPC final was an abomination, the K-Kids have the upcoming district tournament to prove that it was just an aberration.

Freedom’s win shuffles the seeding order of the top four teams in 6A. The Patriots become the top seed and are bracketed to play Whitehall in the semifinals. Parkland sits in the second spot while Northampton is third. The Kids and Trojans have played 16 innings this season, each team winning a game by a 2-1 score.

Both regular season meetings were at Parkland and they would once again be the home team if the rivals meet in the semis at Pates Park on Tuesday. The semifinal winners secure a place in the PIAA tournament in addition to staying alive for the district title.

First Northampton will have to get by Easton this afternoon when they host the Rovers in the quarterfinals. The K-Kids won both regular season games, 7-1 on April 10 and 12-2 in 5 innings on April 27.

The EPC named its 2021 softball All-Star teams. As with many of the sports this year, teams were selected separately for each division in the EPC.

Kate Stuhldreher was the Northampton County division MVP and first team shortstop. The first-teamers for the K-Kids were Devyn Demchak (1B), Taylor Kranzley (2B), Rilee Ehrlacher (OF), and Kaitlyn Renson (P). The second team All-Stars were Kendyll Strohl (3B), Jessie Hunt (C), Lily Stuhldreher (OF), and Ren Herschman (DP).