A strong start helped Northampton build a 7-0 lead on the way to a 9-5 win over Hellertown in Connie Mack baseball at home on Friday.

“Our kids came out early,” said Chad Werkheiser, Northampton manager. “We swung the bats real well. Even some of our long outs were balls hit really well.”

After holding Hellertown scoreless in the top of the first inning, Northampton scored two runs in the bottom of the first. With one out, Chase Bodnar and Jake Raysely each drew walks. Then with two out, Kayde Ibarra singled to score Bodnar and Raysely came around to score on the throw.

It remained a 2-0 game until the bottom of the fourth inning. William Burrell, Ibarra and Nate Kovach all singled to load the bases. After Chase Werkheiser’s RBI ground out scored Burrell, Mason Martisofski singled to bring home Ibarra, making it 4-0, Northampton.

Following a Blake Dreisbach walk, Bryton Kovach’s two-run single scored Nate Kovach and Martisofski. Dreisbach then scored on a Josh Carrasco single to give Northampton a 7-0 lead.

Hellertown answered with two runs in the top of the fifth inning. Mason Brown tripled to score Nicholas Werkheiser, who walked. Brown then scored when Eli Szlachtianshyn reached base on a ground ball to cut Northampton’s lead to 7-2.

Those would be the only two runs Northampton starter Nate Kovach allowed in his five innings. Kovach also struck out eight.

“Nate settled in really well for us,” Werkheiser said. “He has normally been one of our relief guys and he came in and did a really good job today starting on the mound for us tonight.”

Northampton got both of those runs back in its half of the fifth. Werkheiser singled, scoring Raysely, who was hit by a pitch, and Burrell, who singled.

Trailing 9-2, Hellertown scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Matteo Lazaro was hit by a pitch to score Ayden Brown. Then, Dominic Barone singled to score Jayden Reifinger. Finally, Werkheiser hit a sacrifice fly to score Kia Riggins, cutting Northampton’s lead to 9-5.

However, Martisofski, pitching in relief, retired the next two hitters to end the inning. Aidan Sergent pitched a scoreless seventh inning.

“Mason and Aiden came in at the end there and did their jobs, closing it down,” Werkheiser said. “Like I said before, we have a lot of arms.”

Behind the plate, Dreisbach also threw out two runners attempting to steal.

“He was huge,” Werkheiser said. “We have a lot of catchers on this team. He came in and he did his job today.”

The win moved Northampton to 11-2-1 on the season with just over a week left in the regular season.

“We have two really tough games coming up, Lehigh-Bethlehem and East Stroudsburg, two of the teams that are up there with us (in the standings),” Werkheiser said. “It is going to be a really good gauge for our team to see where we stand against some of that competition. In the Nazareth game, we struggled, and Southern Lehigh was not one of our best, but I think we are up there with those two teams. I think those were just two outliers. That’s baseball.”

Northampton was scheduled to host Lehigh-Bethlehem on Wednesday (July 1). No score was available as of press time.

They end the regular season visiting East Stroudsburg on Monday (July 6).