If there’s one team in District 11 that opposing teams didn’t want to see get hot on the baseball diamond this time of the year, it would be Liberty.

The second-seeded Hurricanes (16-4) made easy work of Nazareth in Monday night’s EPC semifinals, coming away with a 12-2 victory to advance to Thursday’s 7:15 p.m. finals against Parkland at DeSales University in a showdown between the top two-seeds in the conference.

Liberty has been red hot of late, winning their last six straight, including back-to-back 12-2 contests in the league playoffs, as they trumped Bethlehem Catholic in the league quarters by the same score on Monday night.

Ayden Zabala went 3-for-3, knocking in two RBI and scoring three runs, while Franklin Pichardo drove home three RBI in the 12-hit Liberty barrage.

“Nazareth is a very good team,” said Liberty head coach Andy Pitsilos. “We knew we had to be disciplined at the plate and play good defense around our pitchers. We had to get guys on and put pressure on their defense. That’s basically our game. We knew it was going to be tough but if we play up to our capabilities, we could win the game.”

Junior pitcher Noah Gyauch-Quirk shook off giving up a two-run homer in the top of the first to Jake Dally, closing out with seven strikeouts, three walks and four hits in five innings of work.

Liberty erased the early 2-0 deficit by scoring six in the bottom half of the first and then adding three more runs in the second to make the night comfortable.

Top-seeded Parkland (20-2) handled Emmaus 11-5 in Monday’s nightcap, setting up a rematch of Parkland’s 7-4 win over Liberty back on April 3. While Liberty has brought back most of their team from last year’s state championship run, this year’s Parkland squad has been excellent, as they enter the league championship riding a 13 game winning streak.

Liberty is searching for their first EPC crown and first league championship since 2003.