They say pitching is the key to baseball and Liberty’s staff has certainly devoured teams through the team’s 11-1 start to the season.

The Hurricanes completed another unblemished week, after handling Whitehall, Freedom and Emmaus last week. It pushed them to five-straight wins coming into this week, as the pitching staff has allowed only 2.5 runs per game this season.

If you take out their two nonconference games against Wilson (8-7 win) and Williamsport (5-1 loss), Liberty has given up a staggering 18 runs in 10 league games.

It’s the perfect recipe for success, and ‘Canes head coach Andy Pitsilos is enjoying the ride.

“The pitching staff is deep and they are all different types of right-handers,” said Pitsilos. “All of them throw from different arm slots, so teams are never seeing the same type of pitcher twice. Our staff has done a decent job of hitting their spots so that the defense is in position and we can exploit weaknesses.”

Jake Kraihanzel has led the way with four wins, striking out 10 in the process and allowing eight runs this season. Gabe Rodriguez has posted 16 K’s in three wins and Caleb Gross has equaled that amount of strikeouts in two wins this year, too.

With such a deep staff on hand, it seems the only team that’s capable of standing in Liberty’s way this season, might be themselves.

“I believe they can get even better,” Pitsilos said about his pitching staff. “They are talented, smart kids and they are very eager to get better. It’s a special group. It is up there with some of the best groups we’ve had. Are they the best yet, no, but they can get there. They are all grounded kids and hard workers. They just need to not get ahead of themselves and just handle the task at hand.”

Liberty heads into the stretch run of the regular season this week with contests against Pleasant Valley, East Stroudsburg South and Easton.

Bethlehem Catholic got back on track in its last two contests by grabbing a 12-6 win over PV and a 12-2 win over Notre Dame last week to get them back over the .500 mark a 6-5.

With Pottsville, East Stroudsburg South, Whitehall and Dieruff on tap for this week, the Hawks have a chance to push themselves further towards clinching a playoff berth.

Freedom (2-11) has dropped five-straight games, but find some reprieve this week taking on Allen, Pocono Mountain East and East Stroudsburg North.