Liberty has gotten most of the baseball headlines around the Lehigh Valley the past three seasons. Winning championships does that, but Freedom hopes they can nudge their way into the conversation this season.

The Pates are 8-2 heading into a Tuesday showdown with Liberty (8-1), in what might be the marquee matchup of the season in the East Penn Conference.

The results of that contest are past Press deadlines, but Freedom head coach John Bisco was eager to see what his team was made of coming into a big week.

“Of course the Liberty game is always a big one, but we cannot look past Dieruff,” said Bisco. “One game a time and continue to stay focused. Our players have done a great job playing loose and having fun.”

The Pates had no trouble with Dieruff on Monday in a 10-0 shutout, as they’ve been on a torrid streak in winning four straight heading into the Liberty game. Freedom outscored their opponents 67-1 in that stretch. A truly insane stat, highlighted by a 34-0 win over East Stroudsburg North last week.

Ryan Kullman is hitting .400 at the plate this year and leads the team with 12 hits and 15 RBI to go along with two home runs.

Michael Cobb has 10 RBI and Chase Walker is hitting .389 with six RBI to his name. Darien Serrano has been stellar on the mound in his three wins this season, not allowing any runs this year and leading the team in strikeouts with 25 along with Walker.

Keeping this pace isn’t sustainable, but the Pates can further cement themselves as one of the top teams in the conference this week with how they perform against Liberty, as well as Easton (5-3) and Northampton (5-5).

“We had a good week last week for sure, but we have a big week ahead,” said Bisco. “It won’t be an easy task, but it will be a fun week and our coaching staff believes in our players.”