Earlier last week, Bethlehem area high school softball coaches were holding their breath, but with cooperation from the weather, opening season conference games went off without a hitch on Thursday, as Liberty defeated Bethlehem Catholic, 2-1, and Freedom defeated Easton, 4-3.

The Hurricanes made the first move on the Hawks when Alyshia Dellatore hit a ball through the gap, resulting in a double and an RBI that scored Lauren Epsaro, who led off with a double in the bottom of the first inning.

Dellatore said, "As soon as it went to a 3-0 count, I knew that [the pitcher] had to come to me. The hit felt awesome, especially when it went through that gap. It was awesome."

With a preseason spent mostly indoors, and a home game against the defending conference champions, the anticipation was higher than usual for the Hurricanes.

"I was so excited that it was our first game, and it was Beca, and I just knew we needed a lead," said Dellatore.

Bethlehem Catholic tied the game in the bottom of the second inning when pitcher, Elyse Cuttic had an RBI single, but in the bottom of the fifth, Liberty's Moriah Kondravey homered to take a one-run lead.

The Hurricanes, however, never believed that one run would be enough to win the game.

"Honestly, no," Dellatore said, "especially with Beca because we always have tough games with them. We said, we can't stop here. Knowing we had the lead made us play harder."

In the top of the fourth inning, for example, the Hawks left three runners on base without scoring.

"We actually had a couple situations like that. It was definitely a nail-biter, but we had full faith in our pitcher [Deb Renner] and our defense," said Dellatore.

Also last Thursday, Freedom pitcher, Shayla Peterson drove in the winning run in the top of the seventh inning to lift the Patriots over the Red Rovers.