Parkland High School Baseball

After a season of more postponements than games played, the Trojan JV Team was anxiously awaiting their home game against Pocono Mountain East. On a beautiful, sunny day with the sun shining, the smell of ballpark fare down at the Coke Wagon and a happy vibe in the air, all were hopeful for a great baseball game. Little did everyone know that Sophomore Pitcher, Drew Sorrentino would pitch the game of his life. After striking out the side in the top of the first inning, his velocity on the fastball and bite on the curve would indicate that he was going to difficult to hit against. Great pitching combined with some less than ideal fielding by the Cardinals of Pocono Mountain contributed to a solid victory for Coach Moyer’s squad. A RBI single in the first by DH Josh Miiller (1 for 2 with 2 rbi’s and 2 runs scored) put the team ahead for good. His line shot to centerfield scored Chris Lessel (1 for 4 and 3 runs scored) and Parker Swartz (2 for 2 with 2 singles and a walk). Drew was “on” for the game and he wouldn’t need much offense to win this game. In fact, his dominating performance included 11 strikeouts in just 5 innings pitched. The few batters that made contact hit mostly soft pop ups near home plate. Other than a walk and hit by pitch, the only batter to reach base for Pocono Mountain East was in the 5th inning, when the catcher tried to bunt to break up the no hitter. A throw slightly off target enabled the PM Catcher to reach base.

With the official scorer quickly indicating “e” for error, the no hitter was a strong possibility. During the 2nd through 5th innings, the Parkland hitters made plenty of contact, but were fortunate that the defense wasn’t as crisp as our pitching, so extra runners consistently got on base. Joe Algard (1 for 2) seemed to be on base in every inning. From his 2nd inning single to his ability to take pitches for a walk, or get hit by pitch or even get on with an error, he was able to make things happen on the base paths. TJ Khela had 2 rbi’s by having productive at bats in the 3rd and 5th innings. His teammate, Owen Lehr (1 for 2) had a nice day at bat by getting hit by a pitch in the first and hitting a line drive single to right in the 4th inning. Nikhil Patel had his typical day by get an rbi single and getting on base with a walk and Luke Dauberman made one of the few necessary fielding plays for the Trojans and also managed to get on base a couple of times and score a run. Behind every great pitching performance by a pitcher is the work of the catcher. In this game, Jack Giovenco caught a great game and should be proud of catching a no hitter. Jack struck the ball hard in the 5th inning deep to left field to help knock in a run and to start to put the game out of reach. Joe Algard’s walk off Hit by Pitch turned out to be the final play of the game. With 1 week left in this season, the Trojans are hitting their stride behind some great pitching and timely hitting.