The clock had recently ticked past 11 p.m. at Pates Park when Hannah Duerr slapped her glove on the Emmaus runner attempting to score from second in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure a 2-1 win to give Northampton their third district softball title of the 2020s.

After bludgeoning Nazareth and Freedom by a combined score of 25-3, the K-Kids faced off against EPC MVP Mari Eiswerth and had to gut out a pitcher’s duel. Eiswerth struck out 17 batters and only allowed 4 hits, but the Kids made the most of their opportunities and got clutch pitching from junior Rylee Gable.

The teams were scoreless through three innings and each had only managed one hit to that point.

Senior Avery Deibert abruptly changed all that by lacing the first pitch of the fourth inning over the fence in dead center field to give the Kids a 1-0 lead. The hit was also the 100th in Deibert’s high school career.

She described the moment, “She (Eiswerth) throws high and I wanted to be aggressive because I didn’t want to have face that rise ball. And the first pitch was down the middle, I swung, and that was that. It was amazing to do that and contribute. Runs were crucial today.”

Gable faced her first test in the bottom half of the inning. Emmaus started with three straight singles to load the bases with no outs. She induced a fly out to shallow center, a foul out to Duerr, and a harmless ground out to end the inning.

Even when Emmaus scored an unearned run to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh with one out, Gable kept her composure to leave the potential winning run on third.

She admitted that in the past, she might have become rattled in such situations, “I think I’ve matured over the last year so much and my pitching arsenal has gotten a lot better, and I’ve learned to trust the players behind me. I was stressed but I knew if anything happened, my team would have my back.”

With the disappointment of having the championship briefly slip away, the K-Kids got back to business as extra innings started.

JoJo Siegfried led off the eighth inning by reaching on a bunt and hustled from first to third on Kiley Henritzy’s sacrifice bunt. Duerr followed with a fly to leftfield that gave the speedy Siegfried time to tag up and score what would be the winning run.

Siegfried’s heroics for the night were not done yet. With two out in the bottom of the ninth and runners on first and second, a ball got through the infield almost to the grass in left. Siegfried ranged over from her second base position to snag the ball and make the key throw to Duerr for the final out and touch off a wave of celebration.

Duerr spoke about handling the roller coaster of emotions over the last inning and a half of the game, “You can’t let the negative overtake you. You have to think, ‘This is not over.’ That’s what I was telling my teammates. ‘We’re not done yet. We are in this game. We’re not losing.’”

Head coach Kristy Henritzy summed up the third championship of her tenure, “They’re all important to me, but this one’s awesome. I’ve been coaching this group of girls since they’re five. It means more because it’s like a family.”

She continued, “In a game like this, the mental side, it’s whole different level. You have to be mentally prepared for teams to do crazy things and for crazy moments. And they did a great job.”