The race for the East Penn Conference Steel Division title appears that it’ll go down to the wire, just as it did a year ago.

Liberty (14-2, 11-1) heads into the home stretch with a two-game lead over Freedom (12-3, 9-3) with four games left for both teams.

The Hurricanes also hold the tiebreaker at the moment over Freedom on head-to-head play after their 10-0 victory on April 22.

This is similar to how the division race played out last season, as Freedom was the front-runner heading into the final week of the season before dropping three straight games in three days to Liberty, Easton and Pocono Mountain East.

That gave Easton the Steel Division title and forced Freedom to a third-seed in the EPC playoffs, where they eventually won the tournament crown.

After winning four straight games since the loss to the Hurricanes, including Saturday’s 2-1 win over Bethlehem Catholic, the Pates slipped on Monday following an 11-5 loss to Nazareth.

“Of course I would rather be on top but I’m happy with what we have done so far this year,” said head coach Nick D’Amico. “We need to just keep playing hard and not be content with where we’re at. There is always room for improvement.”

The Pates have a manageable stretch of games this week with Dieruff (0-13) on Wednesday before a road trip to Pleasant Valley (8-6) on Thursday.

Counter that with Liberty’s schedule this week, which started with Monday’s 2-0 win over Skyline leader Northampton (12-3, 9-3).

Liberty has now won six straight with Monday’s win, putting them firmly at the top of the EPC standings.

Alex Super improved to 3-0 on the season in the win, striking out nine and allowing four hits and a walk in six and one-third innings.

Monday’s win puts the Hurricanes in prime position to control the Steel division now heading down the stretch.

While the Pates are looking up in the division, you never know how things will play out in the final week of the season.

“We need to play one game at a time and then move to the next game,” D’Amico said. “If we do our jobs we should be right there.”

Bethlehem Catholic (4-10, 3-10) have lost four out of their last five games following Monday’s 10-1 loss to Central Catholic.

In most years, the Hawks would need a strong push to end the season for a shot at making districts, but with six teams qualifying for the postseason in the District 11 4A bracket this season, the Hawks are just behind Saucon Valley (7-7) in the District 11 power ratings for the sixth spot.

With five games left on the schedule, including Liberty on Wednesday and Dieruff on Thursday, every result will play into the Hawks battling for the sixth spot toward districts.