Sports can be cruel and Liberty’s baseball team learned that lesson the hard way last week in the District 11 6A semifinals.

That harrowing reality came in the form of a 3-2 semifinal loss to Parkland to end their season prematurely.

The Hurricanes (19-3) were the top team in the area all season, until the postseason came along and ended their hopes at conference and district title aspirations, making it a particular difficult pill to swallow for everyone involved.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, Liberty had their chance at home to punch their ticket, but for a team that averaged 10 runs a game during the regular season, the big hit never came, as Parkland reliever Blake Barthol forced Parker Frey to pop out and their season.

“This was a tough one for me because I know how much the kids wanted to move on and keep playing together,” said Liberty head coach Andy Pitsilos. “There were a few that didn’t want to leave the field and were quite broken up. That’s baseball however and Parkland played a great game and made all the plays.”

After losing to Pleasant Valley 3-1 in the East Penn Conference semifinals, last week’s loss to Parkland was even more heartbreaking for the team to not come away with hardware from a truly great season.

“We had a couple of tough games at the end but it doesn’t take anything away from what the kids accomplished this year,” Pitsilos said. “They played baseball at a really high level and I’m proud of them.”

While Liberty was eliminated, Bethlehem Catholic (15-8) was playing in Tuesday’s District 11 4A championship against top-seeded Northwestern.

The results of Tuesday’s contest are past Press deadlines, but head coach Matt Corsi was thrilled to be in this position in his first, full year with the program.

“Making the finals in year one is a huge success,” he said. “This is definitely a building block for the program. It’s very surreal. I can’t say enough about the boys, this team and my coaches. We love being around each other and hope the season never ends.”

While Northwestern (19-4) are the Colonial League champions, Becahi has won 11 of 14 games down the stretch and are one of the hotter teams in the area.

“The biggest key to winning is doing what we did all year,” said Corsi “and that’s battle 1-9 in the lineup and play solid defense.”