Freemansburg started fast but could not keep up with Northampton’s offense in a 14-4 NorCo Legion baseball loss in four and a half innings Monday at Northampton.

Following a 5-1 loss on Sunday against Nazareth, Freemansburg scored three runs in the top of the first inning.

“We went down yesterday in a tough one,” said Joe Fancera, Freemansburg manager. “We didn’t make the plays yesterday. Tonight, we got off to a quick start but, then again, the defense showed its ugly head and that put us behind the eight ball.”

With one out in the first, Mason Ziobro reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to third when Ryan Kullman singled.

Anthony Fancera grounded to third base with two out, but Northampton’s throw was off target, allowing both Ziobro and Kullman to score, staking Freemansburg to a 2-0 lead. Then, Camil Puig singled to score Fancera and give Freemansburg its third run.

However, Northampton batted around and scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Aidan Sugra led off with a triple and scored on Gavin Caravallo’s single. After Freemansburg could not reel in a fly ball from Tyler Biechy to put a second runner on base, Brayden Giandomenico doubled to score Caravallo and cut the Freemansburg lead to one. Biechy scored on a Quinn Hughes groundout to tie the game at three.

Northampton took the lead for good when Logan Merkle reached on an error, scoring Giandomenico. Connor Muth’s single scored Merkle to give Northampton a 5-3 lead after one inning.

Northampton added three more runs in the second inning. Sugra, Caravallo and Biechy all reached to load the bases with nobody out in the inning. Zack Hartzell’s single scored Sugra. Giandomenico followed with a single to score Caravallo.

Freemansburg stopped another run when third baseman Jason Frederick cut off a ground ball at third and threw home for the force out. However with the bases still loaded, Merkle’s sacrifice fly scored Hartzell, giving Northampton an 8-3 lead.

Freemansburg got a run back in the third when Frederick was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and scored on a long triple by Kullman.

However, Northampton scored five more runs in their half of the third, all with two outs. After Sugra was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, Caravallo doubled to bring him home. Caravallo then scored when Biechy reached on a Freemansburg error. Zach Hartzell was hit by a pitch after Biechy to put two men on for Giandomenico, who crushed a three-run, inside-the-park home run to left field to give Northampton a 13-4 lead.

Northampton added one final run in the bottom of the fourth. Elliot Hughes singled and scored on an error.

The game ended when Freemansburg could not score in the top of the fifth.

Ryan Kullman started and pitched three innings for Freemansburg, striking out two. Matthew Shields struck out two more in one inning of relief.

“We have a young team,” Fancera said. “We lost a lot of the veterans from last year. We expect good things going forward, but we’re off to a rough start. We’ll recover from it.”

Freemansburg dropped to 0-2 with the loss. They are scheduled to visit Birches today (June 11) for their next game.