Every Liberty-Freedom sporting event carries a little more weight than other contests slated during the regular season, but Tuesday night's baseball matchup had the division title on the line.

The results of that contest were past Press deadlines, but to put it simply, it was a big game for both coaches and programs.

"It's a big, huge game," said Liberty head coach Andy Pitsilos. "These games are always big and always close. It's a rivalry game that's always played tough and I don't expect anything different this time around."

Last night's tilt at Freemansburg was the regular season finale for Liberty (14-5, 12-4), while Freedom (11-5, 9-4) still has three games left this week against Central Catholic (Wednesday), Pleasant Valley (Thursday) and East Stroudsburg North (Friday).

The reason why Tuesday's contest will decide the Steel Division winner is because both teams entered with 7-2 division marks and the league uses that criteria to determine a division champion.

"Liberty did everything right the first time we played them and took advantage of the mistakes we made," said Patriots head coach Nick D'Amico of the Hurricanes 4-0 win on April 17. "We're going to have to play a better game this time."

Freedom went 5-0 last week to put them in this position, as Zak Gagnon (3-0) got the nod on the mound for the Pates last night. Liberty planned to counter with Alexis Calderon (4-0), who threw a two-hitter against Emmaus last week during a 10-0, five-inning victory.

The winner of Tuesday's game will be seeded third in next week's East Penn Conference playoffs, behind top-seed Parkland (18-1, 14-1) and second-seed Stroudsburg (18-1, 14-1). The Mounties handed the Hurricanes their only loss in five games last week, topping them 4-3 on Saturday.

The 'Canes and Pates have split both regular season contests over the past two years, but Pitsilos hopes that won't be the case this week.

"Our goals every include winning the division, the league and the district title," he said. "This is a postseason game played in the regular season. This gives our young guys a chance to prove themselves against a veteran Freedom team. It should be great."