These days, Mick Sugra is spending his summer differently from his usual ones. Over the next few weeks, he will truly be one of the “Boys of Summer.”

The veteran Northampton baseball skipper has extended his pipeline further this summer, as he has taken over the reins of the Konkrete Kids’ Lehigh Valley Connie Mack entry.

Longtime head coach Jarad Haupt decided not to direct the team this summer.

It wasn’t a pleasant ending for Sugra and his varsity unit that watched a 5-0 lead over Liberty in the district Class 6A semifinals result in an 8-6 defeat to the three-time champions. The Kids did post a big win over Emmaus, when they nipped the Green Hornets, 4-3, in a district quarterfinal. In the past, Emmaus has been a frequent halt to their postseason plans.

“It is what it is,” deadpanned Sugra. “We were one inning away from playing in a district final. When we got up 5-0, we thought that maybe the ballgame was over.

“We felt confident we could beat them (Emmaus), and we did. We needed to play small ball and have good defense to help us win. We will lose five seniors, but we got enough underclassmen who got some game time along the way, and we’ll be OK.

“Our JV team was 14-4, and we like what we have there.”

Well, Sugra will get an up-close look at his future this summer as the program’s Connie Mack baseball czar, and pitching development will be a key.

As far as pitching returning for the varsity next season, rising senior Erick Castro, junior Tommy Hensel, and sophomore Andrew Berger will be back.

“It will be more development for me,” he stated. “We’ll try to develop some more pitching for the varsity, and we’ll move around some of the younger guys to help find their spots. It will give us a good feel for next season.”

Through their first four games, the Kids were sitting at 2-2 in the Lehigh Valley Connie Mack league. Their two losses were to defending champion Southern Lehigh and to the Wolfpack, which didn’t have a hit and still won 1-0. The Kids victories came over Catasauqua and North Parkland.

Catcher Jaxson Rutzmoser was hitting .500 to open the season, second baseman Brayden Giandomenico was at .462, and shortstop Aidan Sugra was at .400

Sugra knows it will take some time.

“It’s early yet, our pitchers hopefully are starting to get into a routine,” noted Sugra. “Offensively, we have four guys hitting over .400 and then we kind of go into a little lull.

“So, once we get our lineup going a bit more, hopefully some more wins will follow.”