Parkland High School Baseball

On a night that saw about 75 potential future Trojans as part of Youth Night, the Parkland varsity baseball team used pitching, defense, and strong hitting to put together one of the more complete games of the year in a 11 – 1 win over East Stroudsburg South. Parkland wasted no time putting up two runs in the first inning behind back to back hard hit singles by Andrew Roth (1-2, 1R, 1BB) and Cullan Wadsworth (2-4, 3R, 1RBI) and an RBI fielder’s choice by Tyler Bruno (0-3, RBI).

Solid pitching by Matt Mellinger (4 IP, 3 H, 3 K, 0 R) and crisp glovework behind him held ESS scoreless into the 3rd inning. It was then that the Trojan offense put together one of its biggest innings of the season with doubles by Wadsworth, Kyle Friebolin (1-3, 1 R, 2 RBI), Mellinger (1-2, 1 BB, 1 RBI), and Christian Burgos (1-2, 2 R, 2 RBI). With singles sprinkled between by Austin Mueller (2-2, 1 BB, 1 RBI) and Adam Smith (1-3), the home team posted six more runs on the board to stretch the lead to 8-0.

The lefty Mellinger pitched another scoreless inning in the 4th before turning the ball over to A J Palumbo in the 5th. The visitors would not back down as they put one run on the board. However, that rally was cut short by Palumbo’s pitching and 3 runs posted by Parkland in the bottom of the 5th. In that half of the inning, Isaac Neil (1-3, 2 R) led off with a laser shot over the head of the left fielder for a triple. A walk by Burgos and a hit by pitch by Nate Markowicz loaded the bases for Wadsworth, who put the ball in play to knock in a run. A misplayed ball off of the bat of Ethan Imler allowed two more runs to score to put the lead at 11 – 1, triggering the mercy rule to end the game.