Early-season games rarely fall into the category of “big games,” but an opportunity to knock off 3-time defending district champion Liberty pushed last Friday’s contest into that category for the Northampton baseball team.

After scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a 2-out RBI single by Austin Sommers that was followed by a 3-run homer Aidan Sugra, the K-Kids were primed to accomplish the feat.

However, they could not make that 4-run lead hold up as the Hurricanes rallied for 7 runs over the last three innings to take the game 7-6.

Erick Castro was dominant on the hill for 4 2/3 innings, surrendering only a leadoff single to the first batter of the game and a pair of walks in the fourth inning. He struck out 5 over that time span.

After retiring the first two batters of the fifth inning, Liberty got their rally started with two walks and two singles to plate a couple of runs. Castro picked off the runner at second to end the threat temporarily.

Northampton got those two runs right back in the bottom half of the inning as Sommers scored on a sac fly and Sugra came home on a throwing error. The score was 6-2 heading into the sixth.

Things started to unravel when the ninth-place hitter in the Hurricanes’ lineup smacked a 2-out, bases clearing triple to shrink the margin to 6-5 after six innings.

Liberty scored the winning runs in the seventh inning without a ball being put into play. There were 5 walks, two intentional, scattered among three strikeouts. The K-Kids went down in order in the bottom of the seventh.

The bitterness of the defeat was heightened by the fact that a couple of bad calls went against Northampton early in the game.

In the second inning, Castro was ruled to have left the batters box while bunting. Liberty’s throw to get him at first had pulled the first baseman off the bag, but after the umpire conferred instead of having first and second with no outs, the Kids were left with a runner at first with one out.

The third inning saw a similar reversal of fortune. The Hurricane shortstop dropped the ball when attempting to turn a double play, but the umpire ruled the drop occurred on the transfer, not before the tag of second base.

It is impossible to say what would have transpired in the game had those calls gone Northampton’s way, but it was clear how head coach Mick Sugra felt about them, “It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating. Just the let the kids freakin’ play baseball. That’s all can say on that.”

“Our guys came out on fire. We just couldn’t shut the door there at the end. They’re the champs until somebody knocks them off. They’ve established that culture,” concluded Sugra.