Liberty was able to come away with the East Penn Conference title last week, but Bethlehem Catholic and Freedom now hope they can make a run in districts to secure their own piece of hardware this spring.

The Golden Hawks (16-7) kick off the District 11 4A tournament on Wednesday against Lehighton and their run to the EPC finals last week was a great tune up before the official postseason.

“We got hot at the right time,” said head coach Matt Corsi. “Our offense was bound to come around. We were hitting hard baseballs right at people before.”

The Hawks scored 22 runs in their two wins against Emmaus and Nazareth, before dropping a 12-2 finale to Liberty in the championship, but the opportunity to stay sharp in playoff games is one of the best advantages of playing deep in the EPC tourney.

“The best was that we were able to keep playing and not sit idle,” Corsi said. “The experience for our junior heavy team to be playing meaningful games was huge. This is a confident team. We preach to play Becahi baseball and the rest will fall into place.”

Freedom (12-9) also starts their postseason on Wednesday, as the Pates travel to take on a talented Parkland squad. Freedom blitzed the Trojans earlier this season 10-0, but expect this district showdown to be much closer than the last time these two teams met on April 26.

“Parkland is very well coached and a great program,” said Freedom head coach John Bisco. “Our pitchers have to make good pitches and get ahead in counts. We need to play good defense and put the ball in play. If we do all of those things we have to find a way to score runs and we can be successful.”

Freedom lost to Nazareth 3-1 in the EPC quarterfinals and Bisco knows his team can’t replicate that type of performance in the 6A tournament if they want to have a chance at making a run to the finals.

“That is exactly what we didn’t do against Nazareth,” he said. “We pitched well but we didn’t make enough plays in the field and only scored one run. To win the district championship you have to somehow, someway find a way to win. Even if it’s not pretty.”

The semifinal round for 4A and 6A are both on May 26 and finals are scheduled for May 29 in both classes.