Parkland High School Baseball

An M.J. Miorelli foul ball with home-run distance gave the first indication that Parkland had life. Three straight one-out singles, the last of which finally gave the Trojans their first run in the bottom of the seventh inning, sparked hopes of one more comeback in a playoff run that featured a couple of them.

North Penn ace Eric Ruth refused to unravel. He rebounded from allowing back-to-back-to-back hits to get the two outs needed to finish what he started.

The last one, a line drive off the bat of Parkland second baseman Luke Jaindl, kicked off a celebration for the Knights at Blair County Ballpark. It clinched Ruth's complete-game six-hitter and gave District One No. 5 seed North Penn a 3-1 win over District 11 champion Parkland in Friday's PIAA Class 4A baseball state final. The state championship is the first for the Knights' baseball program and denied the Trojans (21-7) the first baseball state title in their history.

'I was picturing [Mike] Tenaglia popping one there to end it,' Parkland coach Tony Galucy said. 'Their kid pitched a good game. We hit the ball pretty well, I thought. We had some line drives that were caught. There were no what-ifs in this. When they got their hits, they were hits.  'Our kids went down swinging. I'm proud of how they battled back all year. This is the best team that's ever gone through.'

A rally from six runs down in the District 11 semifinals against Northampton and from 2-1 down in the eighth inning against Pennridge in the first round of states allowed Parkland to play for a state title Friday. They faced a tough challenge in trying to rally against Ruth, who will continue to pitch at Division I Winthrop next season.

Parkland had just three singles when it came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh down by three runs. A single by Jon Gabriel (2-for-3) and another by Dan Klem got a rally going for Joe Abeln, who ripped an RBI single to center field to make it 3-1.  Undeterred by the hits he allowed, Ruth regrouped. He whiffed Tenaglia for his sixth and final strikeout of the afternoon before Jaindl lined out to first to end the game.

Ruth's third complete game of the postseason capped his brilliant senior season. He finished the year 12-1 with a 1.15 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 85 1/3 innings.  'I was just ready to fight through it,' Ruth said. 'A couple of hits, I don't get shaken up too much. They stayed behind me after that, got the final two outs of the game, and we're state champions.'

Had a handful of plays gone in Parkland's favor, it could have been celebrating a state title. Starter Casey Cooperman allowed three runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings to keep the Trojans close. His line may have been better had one fifth-inning ball not wound up on the ground.  It came off the bat of North Penn No. 9 hitter Mark Grassie (2-for-3, one run). He drove a ball to left field that sent Abeln sprinting to his left. Abeln dove for the ball and had it in his glove for a moment, but it popped out when he hit the ground, allowing Grassie to race to second with a one-out double.

Robbie Zinsmiester followed with an RBI double to snap the scoreless tie, and a two-out RBI single by Scotty Christy gave the Knights a 2-0 lead.  'It was in my glove,' Abeln said. 'I was pretty upset. What are you going to do? That's baseball.'

North Penn added its final run in the top of the seventh on Justin Davey's RBI triple. Parkland thought it had one more rally in it. 'It didn't happen,' Cooperman said. 'I'm just going to enjoy this. It was a great season. I can't complain about how far we got this year.'

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Ruth and Albaugh; Cooperman, M. Smith (7) and Gabriel.