In many ways, Northampton was facing a much different Parkland team from the one that it beat twice during the regular season. Whether it was the 12-2 loss early in the season or the 5-2 loss in early May, neither of those games showed what this Parkland team is truly capable of doing on a softball field. For instance, Parkland (17-5) made nine errors leading to nine unearned runs in the two previous meetings.

But the Trojans flashed some leather at Northampton (21-2) on the way to a 3-1 win and their seventh East Penn Conference championship in the last eight seasons last week at Pates Park.

“We are a completely different team from when we started the year,” said Evelyn Montone, who finished the game with a double, triple and two RBIs for Parkland. “We got our heads together like we needed to and defensively, we were always strong, but we just became stronger and worked together as a team and played for each other.”

Parkland failed to score in the top of the first inning and ironically, Northampton leadoff hitter Rilee Ehrlacher reached on an error to open the game. The next two batters reached on infield singles to load the bases with nobody out.

As if to say, “just kidding,” Ashlyn Hillanbrand struck out the next two batters and Montone followed those outs with a running catch in center field to keep the game scoreless. Hillanbrand set down 12 of the next 13 hitters with just a single from Hannah Makovsky in the bottom of the second to break the string.

When Northampton did get its 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 plate Northampton’s first run of the game and Kaira 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 Cassidy Sweeney, who snagged it for the second out and fired to first to catch Stuhldreher wandering off first base.

The bad news for Northampton was that its one run still left the Kids down by two runs because Parkland got to Zamadics, the Kids’ starting pitcher, for runs in both the second and third innings.

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.

An inning later, Zamadics got the first two outs before 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 added a two-run double to put Parkland up 3-0.

“I wanted to attack the first pitch, but it didn’t necessarily go that way,” Montone said. “I didn’t give up and luckily, I was able to help the team and able to do what I needed to do.”

After the sixth inning hiccup, Hillanbrand returned to her dominating form and put down Northampton in order in the seventh to lock up the win, giving the Lady Trojans their first EPC championship since 2019. That season was also the last time that Parkland took home the District 11 championship.

“This is definitely special for the seniors and we all really wanted to do this for Katie,” said Hillanbrand, referring to senior first baseman Katie Gontkosky, who went down with a season-ending knee injury in her third at-bat of the season. “We really wanted to do it for her, and we rallied around her. I have been hurt three different years and my teammates always brought me back up and brought me joy, so we wanted to do that for Katie, too.”

By virtue of their EPC championship, Parkland enters districts as the top seed and will face Pleasant Valley (12-9) in the quarterfinals Thursday. The Bears advanced with a nine inning 6-5 win over Easton (10-11) in the first round of districts on Monday. Meanwhile, Northampton will be the number-two seed and will face last year’s EPC champion Freedom (12-9) in their quarterfinal matchup.

“Every team works hard, and I understand that, but these guys wouldn’t quit,” said Parkland head coach Barry Search, who collected his 225th career win in the league title game. “I wanted to make practice short last night and they kept saying, ‘coach, just one more, one more.’ They have a good work ethic. When I, as a coach, get excited to go to practice every day, that is something, because I can’t say that every year. We have had years where we were very successful as a team and I was not hyped up to go to practice, but these kids make it fun.”

Before the game, the EPC all-stars were introduced. Hillanbrand was the only Lady Trojan to be named to the conference’s fist team all-stars. The middle infield senior duo of second baseman Sweeney and shortstop Jenna Pietkiewicz were both named second team all-stars for the EPC.