When evaluating the regular season and the upcoming postseason, Northampton head coach Mike Sugra takes solace in a quote from his brother, Zach, an assistant coach.

“He said that the best team doesn’t always win,” said the head coach about his sibling. “It’s the team that plays the best that day that does.”

Sugra looked for his fifth-placed team to take the mantra into the opening round of the District 11 Class 6A playoffs at fourth-seeded Nazareth Wednesday afternoon.

After an 0-3 start in which they allowed 37 runs, the Konkrete Kids won 13 of their next 17 games including eight of their last nine contests.

“These guys have stepped up,” said Sugra. “They had a blue-collar, hard-working approach team that found a way to win 13 games. Success is not always a straight line.

“We have had more guys contributing lately. Logan Higgins and Nate De Rosa have had some big hits and big RBIs for us lately.”

“Hopefully, we are a lot closer to being a very good team than we were earlier.”

Corrow led the team with a 6-3 record and a 1.65 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 46.2 innings. Evan Hughes had a 5-3 mark with 34 strikeouts in 26 innings. Vincent Santostefano had a 2-2 mark with 40 strikeouts in 27 innings.

Corrow also leads the team in batting average (.404), hits (23), and RBIs (18). Mike Melosky was hitting .327 and Santostefano was hitting .291 with a team-high four homers and also had 13 RBIs. Higgins was hitting .271 with 12 RBIs.

Northampton met Nazareth for the second time this season. Earlier this year, the Kids suffered a 1-0 loss to the Blue Eagles in a pitching duel between Northampton’s Hunter Corrow and Nazareth’s Craig Dally.

Sugra said the team planned to throw Corrow and expected to see Dally again. The Kids closed their regular season with a 7-0 shutout over Hamburg in which Corrow threw three innings, Santostefano had two, and Hughes had two.

He expected to see another tight battle. If the Kids win, they will face the winner of top-seeded Emmaus and eighth-seeded Stroudsburg.

“We had a leadoff walk in the third and it cost us,” recalled Sugra. “Hunter pitched a great game, and we couldn’t help him with 15 strikeouts.

“It will come down to which team plays better on the day.”

And the Kids couldn’t have asked for anything more.