In March, if you had told Konkrete Kids’ baseball fans that the team standing between Northampton and the district final was Allen, they would have looked at you like you had two heads.

Nevertheless, the Canaries came into the District XI 6A tournament with the top seed as the current EPC champions. The K-Kids gave it everything they had but came up short against Allen and their freshman phenom pitcher Alejandro (Wally) Cartagena, 3-2 on Memorial Day in Easton.

“We heard about the kid coming in here – he’s the real deal,” explained head coach Mick Sugra. “Pitcher throws a great game, crazy things can happen. With that said Jake (Raysely) also threw a heck of game. I think the umpires over here missed that call (a pickoff at first). Next pitch – base hit. You take one run off the board, it’s a different ballgame. But congrats to them. They had a hell of year and their season continues.”

The game was scoreless with 2 outs in the bottom of the third with a runner at first for the Canaries. The pickoff throw beat the runner back to the bag, but the tag was ruled to be on the shoulder with the runner already touching the base. The next batter hit a liner into the outfield that got lost in the afternoon sun, resulting in the first run of the game.

Allen added another run in the fourth to go up 2-0.

The Kids got one run back in the top of the fifth. They loaded the bases with one out. Tyler Biechy scored on Brady Simock’s fielder’s choice, but Cartagena limited the damage with the ninth of his 11 strikeouts on the game.

The Canaries tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth to go up 3-1 heading into the final inning.

Down to their final out, the K-Kids made things interesting. Aidan Sugra, who had 2 of the Kids’ 5 hits, was hit by a pitch. Simock then sliced a triple into the left field corner to plate Sugra and put the tying run at third. The last gasp for Northampton was hit solidly but fell harmlessly into the Allen centerfielder’s glove.

Despite the disappointment of the loss, Mick Sugra was proud of what the team accomplished this year, “They set a school runs record of 211. The previous record was 208 from 1998. They set a season stolen base record with 79. Plus 14 wins and the district semifinals. What else can you ask for? I mean yeah, we wanted to keep moving on, but what else can you ask for? A great group of kids.”

The game marked the final time for the elder Sugra to coach his son in a Kids’ uniform. Aidan, who played the month of May with a suspected stress fracture in his pinky after being hit by a pitch against Parkland, was due up third in the seventh inning with the potential to make the final out of the season.

Mick recounted the moment, “I told him before he went up there, I said, ‘No matter what happens, I love you.’ You know, sometimes we don’t say that enough as parents. He had an awesome career. Couldn’t make me prouder as a dad. Both my wife and I are super proud of both of our kids, our daughter, Sydney, and him. So yeah, he got hit one more time. I mean, he leads the team in getting hit.”