Parkland High School Baseball

After six game postponements, weeks of extra winter weather, and no baseball in the month of March, the Parkland Trojans finally hit the ball field today for their 2015 season opener against visiting Dieruff.  Although the bats took a few innings to get going, Parkland pitching dominated and three pitchers combined to no-hit Dieruff for the 8-0 win.

Starting pitcher Connor Higgins was untouchable in his 5 innings of work, striking out 12 while not allowing a hit or a walk.  Higgins struck out the first six batters of the game and went on to retire the first 14 batters in order before a Parkland fielding error allowed a batter to reach base.  Evan McAndrew relieved Higgins in the 6th inning and McAndrew struck out the side after allowing two base runners to reach on a walk and hit-by-pitch.  Alec Bartholomew then pitched a perfect 7th inning to complete the no-hitter.

The Trojans put two runners on base in the 1st inning after back-to-back singles by McAndrew (2-for 3, BB, R, 2 RBI) and Chris Rabasco (3-for-4, R, 2 RBI), but an inning ending double play kept the Trojans off the board.  Parkland took a 3-0 lead in the 3rd inning when Jeff Strisovsky (1-for-4, 2 R) reached base on an error, McAndrew walked, and then Rabasco singled home Strisovsky for Parkland's first run of the game.  Justin Afflerbach (1-for-3, 2 RBI) then hit a 2-RBI single to give Parkland a 3-0 lead after three innings of play.

The scored remained 3-0 until the 6th inning when Parkland batted around the order and scored five runs.   Tyler Bruno (1-for-3, R) got things going with a booming triple to right field.  Pinch hitter Austin Mueller (1-for-1, RBI) singled home Bruno.  Pinch runner Andrew Roth then scored on a pinch hit RBI single by Harrison Rabenold (1-for-1, RBI).  McAndrew drove in two more Parkland runs on his second single of the day, and Rabasco singled home another run to give Parkland an 8-0 lead heading into the 7th inning.  Isaac Neal (1-for-2, R) rounded out Parkland's offense with a single.

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