For the Northampton softball team, last Friday’s game against Freedom may have been the defining moment of their season.

Coming off a 9-2 loss to the Patriots on Wednesday and dealing with the season-ending knee injury to outfielder Chrissy Rabenold, the K-Kids proved their mettle by responding with 10-3 thumping to split the season series.

NHS jumped out early by posting three first-inning runs on the strength of doubles by Taylor Kranzley, Alexa Chromey, and Ren Herschman. Kranzley also made the defensive play of the game with an over-the-shoulder catch running out to right field to the end first inning.

Rilee Ehrlacher pulled a home run down the left field line to lead off the second inning to extend the K-Kids’ advantage. Freedom got the run back in the bottom of the inning to make the score 4-1.

Following the Ehrlacher homer, Patriots’ pitcher Jen Slanovec retired the next 9 NHS batters in a row. Kaela Edelman proved she was up to the challenge, allowing no more runs before being lifted after the fourth inning.

Senior captain Kendyll Strohl broke Slanovec’s string by drawing a walk to start the fifth. Kranzley laid down a sacrifice bunt and Strohl rounded second and kept going for third when she saw no one covering the base. An errant throw allowed her to come all the way around to score the Kid’s fifth run.

On her alert hustle play Strohl said, “You have to be quick on your feet; quick with your head too.”

In the sixth, Ehrlacher picked up another RBI when Ashley Patterson scampered home on a sacrifice fly. The Patriots got a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 6th to cut the lead to 6-3. Captain Katelyn Stuhldreher smacked a bases-loaded single in the 7th as the K-Kids added 4 insurance runs to put the game out of reach.

Stuhldreher explained the reversal of fortune from two days before.

“It was our energy,” she said. “We came back all together, as one big unit and we won as a team.”

The team did not have much time to bask in the glow of their win as they had to turn around to play at Parkland Saturday morning.

The Trojans scored a run in the bottom of the first to take the lead, but Edelman and Kaitlyn Renson combined to limit Parkland to just that one run.

Ehrlacher plated Patterson with the tying run in the top of the 5th and Devyn Demchak knocked in Katelyn Stuhldreher in the 6th to lift the K-Kids to a 2-1 win.

Northampton currently stands at 8-1 on the season and at the top of the District XI 6A power rankings.

The team’s next three games are all on the road against teams they should easily handle: Liberty on Thursday, East Stroudsburg South on Saturday, and East Stroudsburg North on Monday. Their next home game is on Tuesday versus Easton.