The Northampton softball team’s quest for a third straight District XI 6A title came to an anticlimactic end as they were upset by sixth-seeded Easton in the quarterfinal round last Thursday, 6-1.

The game started out well enough for the K-Kids as they took advantage of an Easton error to score the game’s first run in the bottom of the first inning. A pair of one-out singles by Avery Deibert and Hannah Duerr set the table. Whether or not it would have made a difference can only be known via an alternate timeline, but Northampton was not able to push across any more runs with runners on second and third and one out.

The Rovers took the lead that they would never relinquish in the top of the third inning. As the top of their lineup went to the plate for the second time in the game, they started the inning with three singles sandwiched around a Kids’ error. That was good enough to score two runs, although the Northampton fans were buoyed by the fact that Easton had left the bases loaded.

The K-Kids had a couple of chances to equalize. In the bottom of the third, Hannah Makovsky and Duerr drew walks, but were stranded at first and third when the inning ended. Makovsky had a one-out double in the bottom of the fifth but got no closer to home.

Easton took advantage of two Northampton defensive miscues to score three runs in the sixth inning and another error to plate their final run in the top of the seventh. The K-Kids did not get a runner into scoring position in the last two innings.

Head coach Kristy Henritzy ranked the loss as one of the most disappointing in her tenure at Northampton. She explained, “If we played good ball, we could say, ‘Well we played good ball, but we lost. They beat us. They were better today.’ But this is the first time I’ve been on this field in this situation where we lost and we’re the better team. Not to downplay Easton. They’re well-coached and I have a lot of respect for them. We just didn’t get it done today.”

While the loss was certainly disappointing, there is a bright future ahead for the program. Henritzy has raved about the middle school team over the past few years and it started to bear fruit this season. The K-Kids had three freshmen in the starting lineup during the postseason, EPC All-Stars Duerr and Deibert as well as third baseman Ro Echevarria. “We have some young pitchers coming up that are phenomenal,” said Henritzy.

The dream of the three-peat is over, but next year’s squad just needs to focus on winning one in row.