After trouncing Easton 12-2 on the road to advance to the district quarterfinals, the Northampton softball team had to think that they carried some momentum into their matchup with top-seeded Nazareth last Friday.

However, the back-to-back EPC champion Blue Eagles proved to be too much for the young K-Kids to handle as Nazareth went up early and won 8-2 to end Northampton’s season at 13-9.

“It’s a great group of girls. I told them I’m honored to coach them. I’ll miss the three seniors (Ava Cascario, Kylie Eberts, and Ryley Colburn) that have been in the dugout with me the last three years,” said Northampton head coach Kristy Henritzy after the game.

Cascario drew a leadoff walk to start the game but was doubled off first on a nice play by the Nazareth second baseman on an Eberts liner. That was a portent of things to come as the Kids needed a few breaks to go their way to pull the upset, but those breaks never came.

The Blue Eagles put up one run in the first inning and three more in the second to take a 4-0 lead.

JoJo Siegfried provided some excitement for the Northampton faithful that made the trip East by leading off the third inning with a triple and scoring on a Colburn groundout, but Nazareth answered three times in the bottom of the frame and the game was never in doubt after that.

This was a year of transition for the program. Outside of the three seniors, the majority of the playing time was earned by sophomores and freshmen.

Henritzy feels the program is on an upward trajectory. She explained, “I’m excited. I think our group of younger kids is really hungry to do well. We’ll see. We have everyone in the infield returning except Kylie (Eberts). The sophomores are phenomenal. We’re going to put it together eventually, but it was not our day today.”

The top 4 hitters, Hannah Duerr, Avery Deibert, Ro Echevarria, and Kiley Henritzy) by batting average and OPS will all be back. The JV team went 13-2 this season and the Middle School team was a stellar 12-1.

The big question is whether one of the pitchers will develop into the kind of ace that can lead a team to a title. That will be the factor that determines whether next year’s edition will be a good team, or a real championship contender.