It’s not often that a visit to Northampton by the Allen baseball team is considered a big game for the K-Kids, but the regular season finale at Mike Lisetski provided the Kids with an opportunity to clinch a berth in the EPC playoffs.

A consistent offensive attack combined with a 3-hit, 6-inning shutout from Logan Higgins on the mound resulted in 10-0 mercy rule win that lifted their record to 14-6 overall and 10-6 and gives them a chance to vie for a league title.

Higgins spoke about the effect of playing for a playoff spot, “It added a lot. Last time we played them, we had a tough matchup against them 15-7, so we knew we had to get a lot of revenge coming out here today and we did just that.”

“I knew in the bullpen today I was feeling really good. I haven’t thrown in a while. I’ve had a lot of good outings this year. I’ve been hitting my spots in every game so far, but this was the best one yet,” said the senior, who recently signed his commitment to attend DeSales University and play baseball.

Northampton drew first blood in the game in the bottom of the second inning with a walk and some aggressive baserunning by Billy Stuhldreher that allowed him to score on a squeeze bunt by Isaiah Alicea.

In the third, Sam Erschen cashed in on Gavin Pychinka’s 1-out double with a single through the right side of the infield to put the K-Kids up 2-0.

They broke the game open with 3 runs in the fourth inning keyed by an RBI double by Mason Haupt followed by a triple from Higgins.

Northampton scored two in fifth after loading the bases with no outs and finished the game on a two-out 2-run double by Alicea in the sixth.

Although the K-Kids have wrapped up their regular season they will have to wait to see where they will be headed for the EPC quarterfinals. Easton plays Bethlehem Catholic in the final league contest of the season this afternoon and that game does impact the postseason with the Golden Hawks having a 9-6 conference record.

Northampton will be either be the 8 seed and head to PM East on Monday, or they will bump up to the 7 spot and travel to Nazareth, Liberty, or Emmaus, depending how the tiebreaker for the second seed shakes out. The EPC semifinals are slated for Tuesday at DeSales.

Head coach Mick Sugra described the team’s mindset heading into the playoffs, “We’ll play whoever, whenever, wherever. We had a pretty good road record this year. If you want to do something in the postseason, you gotta beat the best. They bought into that last year. We’ll see what this group brings.”