Parkland High School Baseball

At the scene of last year’s District XI championship win, the Parkland baseball team went to Coca-Cola Park to erase last week’s heartbreaking loss to the Nazareth Blue Eagles. On a late night under the lights, gutsy pitching and timely hitting up and down the lineup proved to be enough for the Trojans to do what they planned.

Nazareth struck first posting three runs in the first inning, but Parkland answered immediately with four of their own in the top of the second inning. Kyle Friebolin (2-4) got the train rolling with a hard hit single. Matt Mellinger (2-2, 1 R, 2 BB) rocked a hard hit of his own to follow. Isaac Neal (0-1, 1 R, 2 BB) walked to the load the bases, setting the table for Christian Burgos’ (1-3, 1 R, 2 RBI)line shot to left field for a double, knocking in EJ Brandt (courtesy runner) and Mellinger for 2 RBI. A couple batters later, Andrew Roth (2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI) singled to knock in Neal, then coerced a wild pick-off throw by the pitcher to score Burgos.

With the Trojans up 4-3, pitcher Ryan Giovenco (6 IP, 4 R, 5 H, 1 K) showed steel by shaking off a rough first inning and holding Nazareth to only one more run over the next five innings. No errors in the field behind by the visiting Parkland team, along with a big strike out on a filthy Giovenco curve, helped Parkland to not fall behind the rest of the game. A triple to deep right by Cullan Wadsworth (1-3, 1 R) set the stage for one of Tyler Bruno’s (0-2, 2 RBI) two RBI sacrifice flies, scoring Wadsworth to put them up for good.

In the top of the sixth, with a one run lead, Parkland showed that it can score with small ball as well.  Roth opened the inning reached second base on hustle and an error, Wadsworth dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Roth to third, and Bruno finished the job by hitting a deep fly ball to center to score the tagging Roth. This put the Trojans up 6 – 4, setting the stage for another tight seventh inning against Nazareth.

After a lead-off hit, Giovenco was relieved by Braeden Duff ( 1 IP, 0 R, 3 K) who used three strikeouts to hold off the relentless Blue Eagles. With a final score of 6 – 4, the Parkland Trojans had yet another win in Coca-Cola Park, and more importantly helped make for a very tight divisional race approaching the last few weeks of the season.