The Freedom baseball team spent 20 minutes on its field Saturday. Cold, windy conditions and grass that still hadn't dried out forced the Patriots to cut short their final workout of the week.

Freedom returned to its home field Monday, with Saturday's run-through accounting for all the preseason work it managed outside on a baseball diamond. Patriots coach Nick D'Amico couldn't have asked for much more from his players than what they delivered in their season opener.

Five solid innings and a two-run home run from John Yocum helped Freedom play with a lead most of the day against Northampton. The Patriots escaped with a 5-4 win when the Konkrete Kids left the bases loaded in the seventh inning of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference opener for both teams.

Freedom's success started with the work of Yocum. One of two sophomores on the Patriots' roster, he limited Northampton to four hits and two runs in his five innings.

D'Amico planned to hold Yocum to 80 pitches but allowed him to start the fifth inning while already pushing that number. Yocum responded with one of his best frames, retiring Northampton's 2-3-4 hitters on nine pitches to preserve a 4-2 lead.

"It felt great," Yocum said. "There's nothing else like it. I love being on the mound, and it felt great to get back out there."

Yocum pitched his final inning with a lead thanks to his bat. After TJ Czerwinski (2-for-3, double) led off the third inning with a first-pitch single, Yocum followed with a two-run, opposite-field home run over the right-field fence.

The gusty wind gave Yocum's homer added distance, but D'Amico and Northampton coach Mick Sugra both said they believed the ball would have cleared the fence without the wind. When it landed, the Patriots held a 4-1 lead.

Northampton scraped together a second run against Yocum in the fourth inning, but Yocum limited the damage by striking out leadoff hitter Jon Miller with the bases loaded. Yocum finished with seven strikeouts.

Like Freedom and most Lehigh Valley teams this spring, Northampton has spent little time practicing in places other than gyms and parking lots. Sugra said Monday marked the first time his pitchers faced live hitting outside, so he planned to limit them to around 40 pitches.

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Freedom High baseball team holds off Northampton in season opener