Parkland High School Baseball

After two relatively easy conference wins against Whitehall and East Stroudsburg South, the defending District XI champion Freedom Patriots came to Parkland for a rematch of the title game from last year.  Freedom hasn’t had the same success this year but played admirably in a hard-fought 7-6 extra inning game that Parkland ultimately won. Nikhil Patel brought his 3-0 record into the game and pitched well enough to earn another win giving up two earned runs over four innings while striking out three.  Alex Oliver followed Patel with his best outing of the season, throwing 2.2 innings and striking out six while not allowing an earned run.  Unfortunately, some bad hops and a wild pitch on a third strike gave Freedom a chance to win.

Matthew Ervolina had a night to remember reaching base all five times he came to the plate with two walks, two singles and a fifth inning home run.  Ervolina finished the game with three RBI and two runs scored.  George Jenkins and Austin Imler both added two hits for the Trojans.

The Trojans went into the seventh inning trailing by a run and quickly loaded the bases when Jeremy Piatkiewicz was hit by a pitch and Blake Barthol and Ervolina walked.  Freedom then got a couple of quick outs on a pop out and strike out before Phil Schoch drove in the tying run on a bases loaded walk.

The Trojans went on to win in the eighth inning with an Austin Imler single, Barthol walk and Ervolina single to load the bases.  Joseph Webber drove in the winning run to propel the Trojans to victory.

Koby Staivecki earned his third win of the season in relief tossing a perfect 1.1 inning.  Staivecki didn’t allow a hit and struck out one batter.