After going 0-3 against Freedom in the regular season and EPC tournament combined, the Northampton softball team took out their frustrations by pounding the Patriots 15-3 in 6 innings to advance to the team’s first district final since winning back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.

As the number five seed against the top-seeded EPC champs, the Kids started hot and never really looked back.

JoJo Siegfried smashed a ground-rule double to open the game and Kiley Henritzy knocked her in with the first of her three hits on the night. The K-Kids then proceeded to load the bases with none out. Ro Echevarria plated Henritzy on a deep sacrifice fly that had Freedom centerfielder Landry Guman tumbling over the fence to secure the catch.

Freedom got one run back in the bottom half of the frame on a solo homer by catcher Payton Besecker.

The round tripper was one of only 2 hits surrendered by Northampton hurler Rylee Gable over the first 5 2/3 innings. The Patriots got a couple of extra base hits in the bottom of the sixth with two outs when the Mercy Rule was already a foregone conclusion.

The K-Kids’ offense was relentless. They pounded out 20 hits, including 6 doubles. They scored in every inning, tallying one run in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth, two in the fifth, and five in sixth for the knockout blow.

Echevarria, Hannah Duerr, and Avery Deibert were all freshman starters on the last Northampton squad to play in a championship having reached the EPC final in 2023. However, that team was upset in the district quarters, so this year will mark the first district title appearance and first state playoff berth for the talented trio.

Duerr described her senior year coming to fruition, “We put in so much work in the off-season and to see it all come together and get hot at the right time just feels so good. Knowing we have the team behind us, it’s just the best thing.”

Echevarria spoke about the mindset of the team facing their Northampton Division rivals in the first two rounds of the district tournament, “It feels really good to get this win, you know. We were talking about a revenge tour. You have come back when it matters. We also lost to Nazareth in our last game against them, so it was two revenges back-to-back.”

Head coach Kristy Henritzy summed up the win, “I’m happy with how we performed one through nine in the batting order. Rylee’s been doing a great job in the circle for us with Hannah, they’ve got this great battery going. For us, offense is what we need to prove and I think we did that tonight.”

The K-Kids will go for their third district championship of the 2020s Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Pates Park in Allentown. The team will face off against second-seeded Emmaus and EPC MVP Mari Eiswerth. The Hornets advanced with a 2-1 walk off win against Stroudsburg in a game they trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs and a runner on first.