Announcement
Chris Rabasco is the 2015 Morning Call & Express-Times Baseball Player of the Year
Chris Rabasco, Parkland’s senior shortstop and relief pitcher, is the 2015 high school Player of the Year as named by The Morning Call and the Express-Times. The dual Player of the Year honors caps off a terrific year for Rabasco, as well as a very successful high school career at Parkland. This is the second year in a row that a Parkland ball player has been named player of the year by the Morning Call, and Rabasco is the first player to be named Player of the Year by both news organizations since 2008. The Player of the Year awards adds to an impressive list of accolades for Rabasco this year, as he was also named the Most Valuable Player by the coaches of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC), the 2015 EPC scholar-athlete for baseball, and selected to the 2015 All-Area 1st Team by both the Morning Call and the Express-Times/lehighvalleylive.com
As captain of the 2015 squad, Rabasco led the Trojans at the plate and on the field to a record breaking year for the team. With a 27-2 record, the 2015 Trojans not only broke the record for most single season wins by a Parkland club, but they also won their second conference title in a row by winning the inaugural Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship and won their third consecutive District XI championship. For their record-breaking season, the 2015 Parkland baseball team is the Morning Call Team of the Year.
Batting out of the number three spot in the Trojan batting order all season, Rabasco led the team in several offensive categories this year. His 43 base hits is a Parkland all-time single season record, and his .512 batting average not only was a team high for the season, but it is also the second highest batting average all-time behind Parkland’s all-time leader MJ Miorelli who batted .583 in the 2007 season. Rabasco also led the team this year with 26 RBI’s, 11 doubles, a .581 on-base percentage, and a .702 slugging percentage. With one triple and one homerun on the year, Rabasco’s 13 extra base hits was also a team high.
Rabasco had 12 multi-hit games and collected at least one base hit in 26 of Parkland’s 29 games this year, and more impressively, he reached base safely in all 29 games as he also led the team with 16 walks. He hit a walk-off double to drive in the winning run in an extra inning game against Whitehall at Coca-Cola Park. He was even better in clutch situations and remained hot during Parkland' post-season run. He batted .562 with runners in scoring position during the season and in the postseason, Rabasco was 13-25 at the plate for a .520 batting average along with a .586 on-base percentage.
Chris also contributed to the team’s success with his glove and arm. He made several key defensive plays at shortstop, including several web gems that saved precious runs from scoring in tight post-season games. On the mound, he earned the win in relief in the opening round of the EPC playoffs against Pocono Mountain East. In the EPC championship game against Stroudsburg, Rabasco earned a 6-out save pitching two scoreless innings with five strikeouts to clinch the 2015 EPC championship for Parkland.
Rabasco ends a very successful 4-year varsity career on the Parkland diamond. As the Trojan shortstop for the past four seasons, Rabasco earned honorable mention from the Morning Call as a freshman with a .391 batting average. As a junior he batted .468 and was named to the Morning Call’s All-Area 1st team and to the Pennsylvania All-State Second Team. He is Parkland’s all-time career leader in hits with 124 base hits, doubles (32), and runs scored (78). He is also second on the Trojan all-time career leader board with 76 RBI’s and 43 walks. Chris will continue his baseball career at the University of Pennsylvania where he will be a freshman this fall.
