Northampton head coach Mick Sugra was pleased with his team’s 4-3 victory over Bethlehem Catholic in their final regular-season game a few weeks ago.

From there, the Konkrete Kids would typically prepare for either the East Penn Conference (EPC), District 11 playoffs, or sometimes even both.

However, for the first time in 15 years, this season ended differently.

The Kids did not have a postseason and finished with an overall 8-12 record.

“Well, it was nice to go out with a win against a league opponent Bethlehem Catholic), and avenge a loss from the first time we played them,” said Sugra. “At the end of the day, we have great kids at Northampton, they did everything we asked of them this year and some. Unfortunately, it didn’t show up in the win column.”

Sugra noted that team couldn’t find consistency all season long. He cited losing leads in both games against Liberty, losing both games by one run. The K-Kids did have impressive, consecutive wins against Nazareth and Allentown Central Catholic, but once again, their lack of consistency hurt them.

“We had four bad games in six days where we lost all four to Whitehall, Stroudsburg, Freedom and Pocono Mountain East,” noted Sugra. “Not having pitching in that stretch really hurt us.

“We beat Easton (11-5) then we lost a 1-0 game to Nazareth. We had the lead against Freedom but lost before beating Beca (4-3) the last game. It was an absolute roller coaster of a season and emotions.”

Sugra knows his club will miss the six graduating seniors, but he is confident the team will rebound next season.

“Our six senior player are all great kids and will do great things in the real world,” said Sugra. I have no doubt about that. I also know our younger guys are going to work their butts off this summer and offseason to get back to the postseason.

“I’ve already had conversations with coaches and players to get different points of view to make sure we turn things around next year.”