The only sounds emanating from the Northampton dugout late Tuesday afternoon were the scrape of cleats on concrete and the clatter of bats being stowed into backpacks as the Konkrete Kids baseball team processed the disappointment of their 8-6 loss to Liberty in the District XI 6A semifinal.

The day started full of optimism as Northampton entered the day holding a 2-run lead in the fourth inning with 2 runners on and no outs following a suspension of the game due to weather on Sunday night. Spirits soared as they plated three runs against the reigning EPC MVP, Noah Gyauch-Quirk to take a 5-0 lead.

Liberty responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning after having loaded the bases with no outs, but the Kids were able to breathe a temporary sigh of relief when Logan Higgins came on in relief of Brady Simock to record the final two outs of the inning and leave three runners stranded.

The next three half innings were uneventful, but the bottom of the sixth saw the Hurricanes score 6 runs including four with two outs. Northampton was this close to holding onto the lead heading to the final inning as three batted balls barely eluded the Kids’ defenders.

Head coach Mick Sugra tried to put the game in perspective, “You want to win everything. You want to win every championship. You want to win every game. You want to be the last team standing, unfortunately that doesn’t always happen. We had a very good baseball team that was capable of that, you saw that here today. Unfortunately, their bats came alive a little bit and we didn’t make a couple plays and as result we gave up a 6-spot there.”

“Our guys are top-notch. They’re a class act. They worked their butts off to get where they are here today. I’m proud of them. Hats off to them. It always stinks here at the end of the year, but not everybody moves on. It was close. We tasted it,” Sugra concluded.

Before the break on Sunday, the Kids scored both of their runs in the third inning. Sam Erschen and Austin Sommers picked up RBIs, plating Logan Higgins and Gavin Pychinka. Simock threw three innings of no-hit ball, surrendering only a lone walk.

Mason Haupt, Higgins, and Erschen had the RBIs in the fourth inning. Billy Stuhldreher smacked an RBI triple with 2 outs in the top of the seventh to bring the potential tying run to the plate.