Parkland High School Baseball

The visiting Trojans were not met with a warm welcome in Limeport’s Stadium on this cool May evening.  The sound of the home team’s fans chanting “overrated” were heard quite clearly on this night.  Those late inning chants seemed to spark Tyler Bruno and the rest of the Trojans with a little extra motivation when they took care of business in the late innings as they defeated ACC by a score of 7-4. 

The 1^st inning began with Andrew Roth (2-3, BB, 2R) lining a single to center field.  Cullan Wadsworth (1-3, R) followed with a single of his own but, it was on a towering drive which struck the right field wall.  After a walk to Tyler Bruno (1-3, 2R, RBI, BB) to load the bases, Kyle Friebolin (1-2, RBI, BB, Sac) drove in Roth with a sacrifice fly.  Wadsworth advanced to third on that play and on the next pitch Bruno stole second.  That set the stage for Austin Mueller (2-2, R, 2RBI, BB) who lined a single to left field scoring Wadsworth and Bruno.  Matt Mellinger (1-3) singled but he and Mueller were left stranded as ACC were able to get out of the inning without further damage. 

ACC fought back and held the lead in the bottom of the 6^th by a tally of 4-3.  Even though he was behind by a run Mike Jenkins (6 inn, 8K, 1 ER) battled, holding his opponents scoreless in the bottom of the 6^th inning.

In the the 7^th the Trojans had the top of their lineup coming to the plate.  They had been in tight situations before and seemed to be calm as they came out of the between innings’ huddle.  Roth began the inning with a walk and you could feel the momentum begin to shift.  Wadsworth sacrificed Roth to second with a well-placed bunt.  That brought up Bruno, who flexed some muscle driving a long double into the night sky scoring Roth, and tying the game. 

With Bruno on second, the inning continued with an intentional walk to Friebolin who was replaced by John Amato (0-0, R) as a courtesy runner.  That turned out to be an important substitution in the inning.  Mueller stepped up to the plate and after he worked a 2-0 count, the aggressive Bruno and Amato advanced to third and second respectively on a wild pitch.  Now with first base open, Mueller himself was intentionally walked.  Mellinger came to the plate and hit a seemingly routine sacrifice fly as the tagging Bruno scored from third giving the Trojans a 5-4 lead.  What happened next was far from routine.  On a misplaced relay throw from the outfield Amato sped home and seeing this happen Mueller took an aggressive turn at third base but was tripped up by an ACC player.  That interference call allowed Mueller to score as well. 

Braeden Duff (1 inn, 2K, 0 ER) came in to pitch the bottom of the 7^th.  After striking out the first two batters of the inning, he induced a weak ground ball to short to end the game and pick up the win.  The win clinched the Skyline Division Title for the Trojans.