Last Wednesday afternoon, the Northampton softball team got its first look of the season at the defending PIAA 6A state runners-up, Nazareth.

The K-Kids jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after 3 innings, but the Blue Eagles took advantage of a couple of defensive miscues to get back to 7-6 after 5 innings.

The Northampton fans who openly discussed a possible Mercy Rule outcome half an hour before now faced a white-knuckle ride through the final two innings.

Sydney Ryan led off the top of the sixth with a double and moved to third following a sacrifice bunt. After a walk and a stolen base, Nazareth had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with just one out. However, Rylee Gable got the next two hitters to strike out swinging to suppress the threat.

Gable worked a 1-2-3 seventh with a pair of K’s and a nice snag by shortstop Kiley Henritzy to put the game on ice.

Offensively, the top of the Kids’ lineup is arguably the best in the EPC. JoJo Siegfried, Kiley Henritzy, Hannah Duerr, and Avery Deibert all reached base in the first inning to stake Northampton to a 3-0 lead.

In this game, the bottom of the lineup delivered two of the biggest hits. In the third inning, senior captain Leah Regan took a 2-out, 0-2 pitch to right field for a bases-clearing double. Addy Slivka then followed by smacking a double off the centerfield fence to drive in Regan for the Kids’ final run of the game.

Regan spoke about coming to bat with the bases loaded, “It’s definitely nerve-racking, especially because there were two outs. Even though I was nervous, I thought, ‘There’s runners in place and if I just get the ball in play we’ll hopefully get people scoring.’”

Slivka described knocking in the winning run, “I was really excited because being behind in the count (1-2), I started getting in my head a little bit. At the time, I didn’t think it was going to be the winning run, but it was. It felt great.”

The team is currently 8-1 on the season with their only loss a 3-2 non-EPC loss to Kutztown early in the year.

Head coach Kristy Henritzy provided her assessment as the campaign moves past the halfway mark, “I like where we are as far as our one through nine producing. We’re trying to find a balance of playing loose and dealing with pressure and adversity. I think we have some room to grow. This is fun group to coach and getting that fun to be focused is the challenge going forward.”