There is some question about just how many wins Andy Pitsilos has in his Liberty baseball coach career.
According to one set of records, he would have entered Friday’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game against Allen with 399 wins, but according to official Eastern Pennsylvania Conference statisticians Bob and Pat Whirl, he was at 394.
But those numbers were of no concern to Pitsilos. The only numbers that mattered to him were the numbers on the scoreboard at Liberty’s William Sheridan Field.
Pitsilos liked what he saw there after the Hurricanes posted a 5-0 win over the Canaries in a game stopped in the bottom of the sixth by a popup rainstorm.
Sophomore Brogan Perreault tossed a 3-hit shutout with two walks and six strikeouts, and Dereon Ellis had two hits and two RBIs out of the No. 9 spot in the batting order as Liberty won its third straight game and for the sixth time in its last seven to improve to 9-4, 8-2 EPC.
Allen’s Daifer Moreta (3) forces an out against Liberty’s William Cruz (3), on April 17, 2026, in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
Allen, meanwhile, had its eight-game win streak snapped and fell to 10-4, 6-3.
For the record, Pitsilos said he would go by the numbers compiled by the Whirls and considered it to be career win No. 395.
But no matter; the coaching legend will get No. 400 soon, probably before the conclusion of this, his 23rd season.
“Allen’s a good team and has played very well all year and we’re fortunate to get out of here with a win,” Pitsilos said. “Our kids are starting to come together a little bit. We’re playing better defense. We’re hitting the ball in the clutch situations and today we bunted and played a little small ball. So, it’s coming together. We just have to keep things going and see what happens from here.”
Liberty was the first opponent to beat Allen since the Canaries suffered a 6-3 loss to Pocono Mountain East on March 27.
Rob Leskosky, Allen’s veteran coach in his 14th season, has a team that was the story of the first half of the season. He just hopes that one loss doesn’t become a losing streak.
“Whenever you come into Liberty you know you’re going to face a well-coached team,” he said. “I know there’s been some talk about Liberty being a little down and having a rough start, but [Pitsilos] is going coach his guys up and maybe we should have gotten them earlier in the season instead of midseason. The goal is to make this one meaningless. We need to come back out and have a good practice [on Saturday] and take care of business in our games coming up on Monday and Wednesday and Friday. If we do that, we can forget about this game and continue to move on. We knew there was going to be a bump in the road someplace. Today was that first bump. Hopefully we can limit those bumps and continue to play good baseball.”
Liberty’s Brogan Perreault (6) gets hit with the ball against Allen on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
Leskosky’s team has given Allen its first district qualifier in baseball since 2015. With a few more wins, the Canaries would qualify for an EPC tournament berth for the first time under the league’s current configuration.
“We’ve got a really solid team of kids who really care and want to play together and enjoy working together,” Leskosky said. “They’ve put a lot of hard work into this and we’ve been hoping to flip the script and we’ve got a lot of good kids coming up. They play with a lot of energy, except today. We didn’t play with a lot of energy and Liberty came out and executed. We didn’t execute on our opportunities that we had.”
Perreault limited the opportunities with a solid performance in his first start on the mound.
“We started off good and we got a couple of hits in the first inning, and I felt really good on the mound,” Perreault said. “I felt really comfortable going back out there. I really wanted to close it out in seven innings, but God had another plan for us.”
Liberty is a perennial EPC power and reached the league and district finals last year but again suffered some key graduation losses.
Pitsilos figured it might take some time for the inexperienced players to get up to speed, and they seem to be peaking at the right time with the playoffs rapidly approaching.
Liberty’s Dereon Ellis (1) celebrates a scored run against Allen on Friday, April 17, 2026, in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
“We were replacing a lot of people and it takes time to get used to the varsity pitching and the varsity speed and all of the little nuances that go into the varsity game,” Pitsilos said. “Sometimes it takes four games, sometimes it takes six games, sometimes it takes 10 games to figure things out.”
Pitsilos said he had held Perreault out of the pitching rotation until this point of the season because he’s a valuable player at third base.
“He did a great job today for this second time out,” Pitsilos said. “We haven’t thrown him too much because I don’t want anyone coming up sore. But now we’re more than 10 games into the season and it’s time to start throwing everybody.”
Perreault, who doubled in Liberty’s first run in the third inning, said he’s ready to do whatever it takes.
“We have all of the momentum right now after beating two of the top teams in Nazareth and Allen this week,” Perreault said. “There’s nothing we can’t handle. This is Liberty baseball and we always feel we can dominate. We just have to keep the momentum going and attack the ball. It’s see the ball, hit the ball. We have a great coach and whenever he wants to use me, I’m ready to go.”
Allen’s Jose Mora (34) tries to tag out Liberty’s Dereon Ellis (1) , on April 17, 2026, in Bethlehem. (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)