Parkland High School Baseball

Parkland struggled offensively against Hazelton’s highly rated right handed pitcher only managing five hits in a 5-2 loss.  Parkland looked poised to have a big first inning after singles by Jeremy Piatkiewicz and Blake Barthol.  After Hazelton recorded an out, Joseph Webber walked to load the bases.  Austin Imler singled to drive in the only run of the inning as Hazleton quickly recorded the next two outs to shut down the rally.

From that point on, Parkland could only string together two more hits on the day, both coming in the third inning.  Matthew Ervolina and Webber singled and advanced to second and third on a Hazelton error.  Ervolina eventually scored on a wild pitch and Webber came in on a groud out to end the scoring for the Trojans on the day.

Hazelton was able to put up three runs in the second inning with three singles and a walk and eventually took the lead in the 6^th inning on four more hits including a double.  Parkland was unable to answer as hits were hard for the Trojans to come by in this one.

Starting pitcher Josh Miiller took the loss for the Trojans, giving up four earned runs on five hits, while striking out three over five innings.  Andrew Sorrentino had a strong relief outing for the Trojans pitching a scoreless final inning.

After two relatively easy conference wins against Whitehall and East Stroudsburg South, the defending District XI champion Freedom Patriots came to Parkland for a rematch of the title game from last year.  Freedom hasn’t had the same success this year but played admirably in a hard-fought 7-6 extra inning game that Parkland ultimately won. Nikhil Patel brought his 3-0 record into the game and pitched well enough to earn another win giving up two earned runs over four innings while striking out three.  Alex Oliver followed Patel with his best outing of the season, throwing 2.2 innings and striking out six while not allowing an earned run.  Unfortunately, some bad hops and a wild pitch on a third strike gave Freedom a chance to win.

Matthew Ervolina had a night to remember reaching base all five times he came to the plate with two walks, two singles and a fifth inning home run.  Ervolina finished the game with three RBI and two runs scored.  George Jenkins and Austin Imler both added two hits for the Trojans.

The Trojans went into the seventh inning trailing by a run and quickly loaded the bases when Jeremy Piatkiewicz was hit by a pitch and Blake Barthol and Ervolina walked.  Freedom then got a couple of quick outs on a pop out and strike out before Phil Schoch drove in the tying run on a bases loaded walk.

The Trojans went on to win in the eighth inning with an Austin Imler single, Barthol walk and Ervolina single to load the bases.  Joseph Webber drove in the winning run to propel the Trojans to victory.

Koby Staivecki earned his third win of the season in relief tossing a perfect 1.1 inning.  Staivecki didn’t allow a hit and struck out one batter.

It has been a wide ranging amount of emotions for the last 2 weeks of Trojan JV Baseball.  After the tough loss to the talented Liberty Hurricanes, Parkland won a mercy rule game against Pocono Mountain West that was initially closer than expected.   In that game, Parkland ultimately ended the game by showing their good eye at the plate to accumulate walk after walk after walk after…..you guessed it, some more walks.   However, before all of that slow moving excitement, we had a game.   Pitching for the Trojans that day was Evan Brandt, AJ Carpenter and closer Taiki Horiguchi.    Key hits were provided by Freshmen Ty Tremba, Sean Superka, Ian Grobler, Will Meeker and Andrew Keller plus a key RBI Sac Fly by Evan Brandt.  Ultimately with 14 walks, the on base percentage was high and the team locked up their 2nd victory of the season.

Later in the week, the team was not as fortunate as they just had one of those games in losing to Whitehall 14 to 4.   Parkland scored all of their runs off of the first pitcher through many walks.  However, after that Whitehall had our number.   With minimal highlights from the game, the team knew that they could do better and were looking forward to the Easton Friday Night affair that started off slowly, got really exciting in the middle and ultimately never ended as Mother Nature was sure to put the clamps on the Parkland 5th inning rally where they had their tying runs on base with one out.   With the game not being able to be finished, the momentum that Parkland would get from that game would help them in the coming week.   Starting pitcher Joe Algard and reliever James Miskanic were effective, but some less than stellar play in the field made most of the runs unearned.   About to turn the corner, good things were in store for Parkland in the next week (read Freedom and Hazleton Game updates for the highlights).

With 5 games for the week, the Trojans were looking to start off the Monday game v. Liberty with some energy to propel them forward.    The game against the tall right-hander from Liberty started off positively as Jake Donmoyer walked followed by a long double by shortstop Bryce Ratliff to right centerfield.   Luke Meehan’s rbi groundout and a balk put Parkland up 2 to 0 at the top of 1.  Liberty tied it in the bottom of the 2nd with a couple of hits and a groundout rbi.   From that point until the 6th, both pitchers were impressive.  Liberty only gave up one more hit in the game; also to Bryce Ratliff and Owen Lehr pitched an efficient 6 innings, only giving up 3 more singles and no more earned runs through 6.   With only 75 pitches thrown and most for strikes, the game was in the balance until thefinal inning.   Although the Trojan 9 did not get the victory, the well pitched game plus batting against a top notch pitcher from Liberty will only help the team going forward.

The defense was led by the middle infield of James Miskanic and Bryce Ratliff they they each started a groundout double play in the 2nd and 3rd innings to deflate the Hurricanes from Bethlehem.    Centerfielder Taiki Horiguchi also controlled most of the outfield by making a few nice catches from center.   Liberty won the game 4 to 2.

Liberty came into the non-league game with the Trojans coming off their first loss of the season and hoping to hand Parkland their first defeat of the season.  The Hurricanes were able to put up three unearned runs in the first inning due to several Trojan errors and Parkland was never able to take back the momentum as they fell 13-3 for their first loss of the season. The Hurricanes seemed to win every aspect of the game, outhitting theTrojans 13-8 and playing tougher defense throughout the game.

Phil Schoch was the hard luck losing pitcher in this one for the Trojans as he only gave up two earned runs through three innings, but the sloppy defense was too much to overcome. Blake Barthol and Matthew Ervolina were bright spots for the Trojan offense as they were the only players with multiple hits on the day and accounted for five of the eight Trojan hits, each hitting one double.  Jack Giovenco was able to extend the game with a two out RBI double in the sixth inning to avoid a mercy rule defeat.

The Trojans will look to get back in the win column with upcoming games against conference foe Easton and divisional opponent Whitehall.