It was a bittersweet evening at Mike Lisetski Field last Wednesday as the Northampton baseball team closed out their 2025 season with a stirring, come-from-behind 4-3 win against Bethlehem Catholic on Senior Night.

The K-Kids went up 1-0 in the third inning without a base hit. Austin Sommers drew a 1-out walk and eventually scored after a pair of infield errors by the Golden Hawks.

Erick Castro was cruising on the mound having scattered 3 hits over the first 5 innings while striking out 7 and not walking a batter.

However, Becahi rallied for 3 runs in the top of the sixth inning, threatening to send the Northampton faithful home unhappy.

The Kids were resilient. Brayden Giandomenico led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and after an out, Billy Stuhldreher reached on an error. Sommers ripped a double down the third base line to get Northampton within a run.

Stuhldreher scored the tying run on a passed ball and Tommy Hensel drove in what proved to be the winning run with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Hensel also pitched the seventh inning to pick up the win in his final game in a Konkrete Kids’ uniform.

Hensel spoke about the emotions of playing in his last high school game, “It’s difficult you know. It’s been a long journey. When you’re in the playoffs you never really know when you’re going to go out. It definitely hurts, but I was with a great group of guys for this whole time here and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.”

“We have a great program here. You know a great culture, a winning culture. Unfortunately, this year we couldn’t make that happen. I would have loved to play for a championship with these guys because I’ve been playing with them my whole life. It hurts, but I love representing this team,” Hensel concluded.

Missing the postseason was an especially bitter pill for Mick Sugra to swallow because it was the first time it had happened during his head coaching tenure.

“I didn’t go into this just to be the best, to win baseball games. I went into this because I love the game and coaching and teaching. But that was something that you could hang your hat on. To know that you’re doing something that people prior to you haven’t done. There’s a lot of pride in that. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – I live this 24/7, 365 and I expect to be there,” lamented Sugra.

It’s fair to say that schedule played a large roll in the streak ending. The K-Kids played by far the toughest District XI as measured by the Opponent Win Percentage component of the power rating formula. They played 7 of their 20 games this season against the four teams that made the EPC semifinals. They had four 1-run losses in those 7 games.

Season leaders:

Batting Average: Hensel .411, Giandomenico .375, Sugra .283, Castro .281 RBI: Sugra 15, Pychinka 13, Hensel 11 Home Runs: Sugra 2, Pychinka 1 Doubles: Hensel 5, Sugra 4, Pychinka 3 Triples: Pychinka 4, Sugra 2

Innings Pitched: Simock 32.2, Castro 32.1, Hensel 29.1 Wins: Castro 3, Hensel 2, Simock 2 ERA: Hensel 2.86, Simock 3.00, Castro 3.68 Strikeouts: Simock 54, Castro 32, Hensel 25.