Northampton came into the EPC championship game as the defending District 11 softball champions and having already won two games against Parkland, their opposition for the EPC title, during the regular season. Plus, they had the momentum of coming off a 7-5 come from behind win over Bethlehem Catholic going for them, so everything was in place. The only thing they needed was a third win over the Lady Trojans at Patriots Park in Allentown last Thursday night. Unfortunately, that win remains elusive, and it was Parkland on the right end of a 3-1 score in the conference championship game.

The Kids offense had a tough time figuring out Parkland pitcher Ashlyn Hillanbrand. In the first two meetings with Parkland, the Trojans defense made a total of nine errors leading to nine unearned runs being charged to Hillanbrand. This time around, Parkland made an error on the first play in the bottom of the first inning, allowing Rilee Ehrlacher to reach base, but then played flawlessly the rest of the way, making the difference.

“It’s good softball and things can go either way when you are playing good softball teams,” said coach Kristy Henritzy. “Cheers to Parkland for having a talented team, having a great coaching staff, a respectable program, and they do really well. From my perspective, it was just a good softball game, and we came up short.”

Evelyn Montone led off the second inning with a triple to right field and scored when Brenna Zavecz followed with a single on a blooper to right to put Parkland up 1-0. In the third inning, Northampton pitcher Kaira Zamadics got the first two outs before Cassidy Sweeney lined a base hit to left and then stole second ahead of a walk to Shana Gugliandolo. Montone proved herself to be a thorn in Zamadics’ side and picked up a two-run double to put Parkland up 3-0. From there, Zamadics held Parkland to just two hits over the final four innings, giving the Konkrete Kids offense a chance to close the gap.

After the error to open the bottom of the first, Hillanbrand allowed two infield singles before picking up two strikeouts and getting a nice running catch from center fielder Montone to close out the inning with no runs scoring. From there, 12 of the next 13 hitters were retired, four of them on strikeouts, with just a single from Hannah Makovsky in the bottom of the second to break the string.

When Northampton did get their bats fired up, it started with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Taylor Kranzley and Devyn Demchak picked up back-to-back doubles to make it 3-1 and Zamadics worked a walk ahead of Lily Stuhldreher being hit by a pitch to load the bases. Again, the Parkland defense rose to the occasion when Arianna Patterson lined a ball to second baseman Sweeney, who snagged it for the second out and fired to first to catch Stuhldreher wandering off first base.

Hillanbrand was able to get herself straightened out and put down Northampton in order in the seventh to lock up the win for Parkland, giving the Lady Trojans their first EPC championship since 2019.

“They just continue to grow and evolve,” said Henritzy of her team that came into the EPC playoffs as the top seed. “It’s a great softball program and they are an amazing group of girls, and I am blessed to be on the journey with them and coaching them. This is just one hiccup in the road. This one stings a little because they really wanted it (the EPC championship), but we are on to districts now.”

Northampton officially begins defense of last season’s district championship when they face seventh seeded Freedom this afternoon at home in a quarterfinal game. By virtue of their EPC championship, Parkland comes into districts as the top seed and will face Pleasant Valley in the quarterfinals.

Prior to the game, the EPC all-stars were introduced on the field, including four of Northampton’s players. Kranzley was named the MVP of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference with teammates Demchak, Stuhldreher and Ehrlacher all being named first team all-stars. Makovsky, Zamadics and Kaitlyn Renson were named to the EPC second team.