They say all things must come to an end and the Northampton softball team’s 12-game winning streak to start the season did just that as they fell 9-3 to Emmaus on Tuesday.

Head coach Kristy Henritzy was pragmatic in her postgame assessment, “We’re in a place where you need something like that to keep you hungry and keep performing. So we need a good practice tomorrow. I told them, ‘We’re going to be here awhile. We’ve got some things we got exposed on today. It’s not a punishment practice. There’s just some things we’ve got to tighten up.’”

That the Kids’ first loss was against the Hornets was not a shock because Emmaus hurler Danika Barthol has been the best pitcher in the EPC during the first half of the season. In her 14 innings this year against Northampton, who has the best lineup in the EPC, she has allowed 9 hits and struck out 25 batters while walking only one.

The Kids were without ace Kaira Zamadics, who was sidelined with an illness. Zamadics had struck out 14 Hornets and hit a home run in Northampton’s 2-0 win against Emmaus a couple of weeks ago. Junior Emma Fraley got the starting nod on Tuesday.

The Hornets got on the board first when Daria Krout homered over the left field fence to drive in two runs in the top of the fourth inning. They added a run in the top of the sixth to extend the lead to three.

The top of the Kids’ lineup came through in the bottom of the sixth to get Northampton back into the game. Rilee Ehrlacher led off with a single to centerfield. Alexa Chromey then laid down a bunt that resulted in an errant throw and K-Kids’ runners on second and third with no outs.

Taylor Kranzley then worked the count to 2-2 before driving a Barthol offering over the centerfield fence to tie the contest at three.

Unfortunately for the Kids that was their last hit of the game.

Barthol led off the top the seventh with homer to put Emmaus back on top and then the wheels came off for Northampton as the Hornets scored 5 more times in the inning.

The Kids and Hornets are tied atop the EPC standings with their only losses in the head-to-head split of their two meetings. Emmaus also has a loss to District 1 Spring-Ford, so Northampton is still the top-rated team in District XI 6A.

The Kids’ game tonight against Central starts at 5 p.m. as the team will celebrate Senior Night. On Saturday evening at 7 p.m., the team will play Freedom at the Northeast Little League complex. On Tuesday, they travel to Parkland for their second game of the season against the Trojans. Zamadics is expected to have returned by then and Ashley Patterson has recovered from her broken nose providing additional reinforcements.