The Northampton baseball team’s reward for winning their first district playoff game since 2015 was a District XI 6A semifinal game against 2022 state finalist and 2023 EPC champion Liberty at DeSales University on Sunday.

The K-Kids battled, leading 1-0 after 2 ½ innings, but a 6-run bottom of the third broke the game open for the Hurricanes who went on to win 13-3 in six innings. Liberty has won each of their 4 postseason games this year by 10 runs for an aggregate score of 47-7.

“We knew who they were coming in and they are who we thought they are. We had one shot and that was to play clean defense, for the pitchers to do their job and execute when we brought new guys in to hopefully keep them off balance. We didn’t execute that today,” head coach Mick Sugra explained.

The Kids grabbed the early lead thanks to Matt Merced’s leadoff ground rule double which was followed two batters later by a Sam Erschen single up the middle to plate Merced.

Owen Laury took the hill for Northampton and pitched well for the first two innings, surrendering only a double in the first and a single in the second. But when the third inning started, the first two Hurricanes singled and a Northampton throwing error led to the tying run being scored. Sugra, sensing Liberty had adjusted to Laury, went to the bullpen and unfortunately a combination of hits, walks, wild pitches, and passed balls led to a big inning.

The Kids did get one run back in the fourth when Mason Haupt scored on an Erschen fielder’s choice, but they needed to put up a crooked number after loading the bases with no outs.

Liberty put up 5 more runs in the fifth inning to take an 11-2 lead and snuff out any realistic hopes of a Northampton comeback.

Sugra put the loss in perspective, “At the end of day, that’s what matters out there, guys hugging each other, loving each other, appreciating each other. Every year we ask them to raise the bar. 13 wins last year, district qualifier. 14 wins this year, won a game in districts. Got into leagues again. If we beat Parkland at the end of the year, we win the West Division. These guys had a phenomenal year. They did so many things to help this program move forward.”