Northampton head baseball coach Mick Sugra has tempered his expectations throughout the season about his team’s chances this spring.

The Konkrete Kids were two years away from an East Penn Conference title and an overall 20-4 season. Last year, the Kids had a strong supporting senior cast returning to make them a favorite to defend their title.

However, COVID wiped out another potential blockbuster campaign.

This year, the Kids brought back two senior starters among a unit of seven, and also had a core of JV players making the transition.

Sugra remained cautiously optimistic with his team’s overall inexperience, but he watched his team maintain one level of consistency as the Kids qualified for districts. They eventually dropped a 12-4 decision to Liberty, and finished with an overall 8-11 record.

“Our minimum expectations every year is to qualify for districts,” said Sugra, who completed his 11th season at the helm. “We have done that every year for the past 11 years with only a handful of other teams in 6A (district bracket).

“Obviously, we also like to qualify for leagues, too, and make a run at both league and district titles, but this just wasn’t our year.”

After a slow start that saw them drop eight of their first 11 - at one point five in a row - the Kids rallied to win six-straight victories and thrust themselves back into the postseason scene.

“We fought our way back at the end, winning six of our last eight games,” added Sugra. “Without a full 20-game schedule, who knows if we would have qualified for districts by reaching .500 or not, but we got it on power rankings as a seventh seed.

“We ran into a buzzsaw in Liberty, who pounded out 16 hits against us even getting to their starter early. But we also saw how tough it is to win the big game. Liberty was ranked number-four in the state, and they only managed four hits, two runs and lost in the (district) semis.”

Senior Joe Kerbacher led the team in hits (20), runs (21) and hit .308. Sophomore Vincent Santostefano led the team with a .310 average. Fellow junior Mike Melosky paced the team with 11 RBIs.

Seniors Will Erie (2-3, 3.81), Ryan Kovach (2-1) and junior Hunter Corrow (2-4) led the team in victories. Corrow had a team-high 28 strikeouts.

Senior Jeff Erschen, who battled a shoulder injury, understood how he was part of a process. Erschen will play at Northampton Community College next spring.

“Even though the season didn’t go the way anyone expected, we still learned and competed,” said Erschen. “We all grew as individuals, not just from a baseball aspect but a life aspect as well.

“At the end of the year, we all had good chemistry, and we all became one and always will be.”

Sugra knows his returnees will rely on the program’s strong work ethic.

“Year-in and year-out, you not only have to get yourself there (districts), but you have to get a bounce or two to go your way,” stressed Sugra. “We’ll continue to work our butts off in the fall and winter months to get ourselves a shot at another run next spring.”