Northampton’s baseball team had a preseason experience that will hopefully set the tone for the upcoming season.

The Konkrete Kids recently ventured to the Ripken Experience in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, for a five-day trip in which they scrimmaged Quakertown and Bangor, both of whom were at the site.

Head coach Mick Sugra and his troops thoroughly enjoyed their excursion down South. The team had made a similar trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“It was an awesome experience, similar to Myrtle last year, but yet so different,” gushed Sugra. “Obviously we treat it like a business trip focusing on baseball and trying to improve. The facilities, turf fields, and multiple cages at the Ripken Experience are top-notch and we got so much more work in. The 75-78-degree weather helped, too.

“Tennessee was an awesome place, and we’d definitely go back there again. Aside from the baseball, my goal with these trips is to give the kids an experience that they may never get again. I think we did that again this year.

“We stayed in a 13,000-square-foot house with 13 bed rooms and 13.5 baths in the popular Pigeon Forge Cabins on the side of the mountains with the backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was amazing.”

The Kids won their scrimmages against Bangor and Quakertown. Gavin Pychinka went 3-for-3 with two home runs against Bangor. Andrew Berger, Brady Simock, and Erick Castro combined to hold Quakertown to three hits.

“They were scrimmages so everybody played and people were moved around,” said Sugra. “We only had three hits against Quakertown, and they are a really good team with good pitching.”

The Kids, who lost to eventual district champion Liberty in the semifinals and finished 15-8 last season, opened the season against Southern Lehigh Wednesday.

“We liked what we were able to do,” said Sugra about the trip. “We look forward to the tests of the real season this week.”