If there was one thing that Freedom’s baseball team was looking forward to this past spring, it would be showing everyone what they were made of this season.

The Pates were hopeful for a successful 2020 season that never happened, but came away from the St. Luke’s Lehigh Valley Baseball Tournament with an experience that everyone will remember.

Freedom lost to Emmaus 7-0 in Saturday night’s quarterfinal round of the tournament to end its run.

Emmaus and Parkland squared off against each other in Monday’s championship, as the Hornets came away with the title.

However, wins, losses and championships aside, this tournament has meant a lot more to the 32-teams involved following the cancellation of the spring sports schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For head coach Nick D’Amico, it was an opportunity to be back together with eight seniors that never got a chance to play.

“These kids put a lot of work in the weight room and our team was looking forward to the spring to show everyone what we could do,” D’Amico said. “This was good for them to get out there and play and be together as a team.”

After going 2-1 in pool play with their lone loss coming at the hands of Liberty, Freedom got its revenge on the Hurricanes in Saturday morning’s quarters, courtesy of an 8-4 victory.

Despite falling 9-2 to Liberty in the final pool play contest, playing under the lights at Freemansburg against their city rival was an experience of itself.

“Our guys were talking about how great the atmosphere was for that Liberty game,” D’Amico said of the pool play finale. “I think coming back and beating them on Saturday was a great feeling for our guys, but we might have had a little hangover from that heading into the Emmaus game.”

Despite not being able to advance further, just getting out and playing again made things feel normal, even if it was for a short amount of time.

“I’m glad that we got the opportunity to play and compete,” said D’Amico. “You can’t take these moments away from the kids and it’s a big thanks to Dan Villanti and the rest of the organizers, who put this event together.”