The EPC baseball tournament gets underway this Saturday and Bethlehem Catholic is one of the surprising teams in this year’s tournament. The Golden Hawks have been a pleasant surprise in head coach Matt Corsi’s first season in charge, as they sit atop the District 11 4A power rankings with a 13-7 record following Monday’s 6-5 win over Allen.

For Corsi, this season has exceeded expectations for the team and has only enhanced what they want to achieve now.

“We have totally exceeded expectations,” Corsi said. “The boys bought into our system and process right away and have stayed the course throughout the season. I am proud of this team for how hard they work. They deserve everything they’ve earned.”

Becahi has won seven of their last eight games, one of the best stretch runs the program has achieved in recent memory, as they gear up for a battle with Pleasant Valley (12-4) or Parkland (14-4) in Saturday’s opening round.

The Hawks recently knocked off PV 4-2 last week and hope they can keep the train rolling into the league semifinals

“We are very excited to be in the league playoffs,” said Corsi. “Our goals coming into the year was to finish .500 and qualify for districts. Now, we hope to make a run in the league and district playoffs.”

Liberty (16-1) will enter this week’s league tournament as the top-seed and will likely face Central Catholic in the opening round.

Head coach Andy Pitsilos feels the team has rebounded after their first loss of the season to Easton on May 1, winning three straight since, including a 5-3 win over Pleasant Valley last Thursday.

“The Easton loss showed our kids they can lose if they don’t play their game,” Pitsilos said. “It also took the burden of an undefeated season off the table. I was happy they came back strong and won the next two games.

The PV game showed us that the north is strong. They threw their best at us and it was a hard fought grind it out game. It was like a playoff game and that was a good experience.

Freedom (6-11) closes out the regular season this week with three straight games, which started with Monday’s 7-1 loss to Nazareth. They followed up with a Tuesday showdown with East Stroudsburg North and Wednesday’s finale against Central Catholic.

Head coach Nick D’Amico’s team still had a chance at the postseason coming into the week, as they were eighth in the district power rankings.

“Definitely disappointed with how things have went,” he said. “We just haven’t played the way we should and are capable of. We’ve lost a lot of games by three or less and good teams need to win those close games. Hopefully we can get a chance at the playoffs and then it doesn’t matter what your record is.”