The Parkland players heard the questions over and over. Even as the 2009 Trojans were preparing for the PIAA Class 4A baseball title game, some people suggested they weren't as talented as the 2008 team that started 21-0.  'I don't believe that,' center fielder Ryan Korp, a member of both teams, said a couple of days before Parkland fell to North Penn in the state final. 'I think this team has as much talent as last year's.'

Debate the talent levels of the '08 and '09 Trojans all you want. No one can dispute that the '09 group accomplished more than any baseball team in Parkland history.  The Trojans won their third straight Lehigh Valley Conference title and a District 11 Class 4A championship this season. They also became the first Parkland baseball team to reach a state title game, making them an easy pick as The Morning Call's baseball team of the year.

Parkland wound up with a 21-7 record this season after losing 3-1 to North Penn in the state championship game at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona. Last year's team went 21-1, with its lone loss coming to Whitehall in the District 11 4A quarterfinals.  What helped this team have the postseason success that last year's group could not produce?

'I think last year's team, we got to a point where we relied totally on the pitchers,' Parkland coach Tony Galucy said a few days before the state final. 'We just came out and had this feeling of, 'The pitchers are going to throw their shutout. Let's just get one or two runs and the game's over.'

'This year, our pitching staff has been phenomenal. It's been really good. But our guys still know they have to score. This year it's more of everything, our offense and our pitching.'

The '09 Trojans also enjoyed their time with one another. Many of the holdover players agreed that the '08 team had good chemistry. This year's team chemistry was better.  You could see it the week of the state final. Before their next-to-last practice of the season, the Trojans were joking around and having fun. They seemed at ease while doing several rounds of interviews.

Sure, Parkland wound up one win short of becoming the first District 11 team to win a 4A state title in baseball. The Trojans still fought their way to every other goal they had.

'I kept telling the kids earlier this year, nobody expected Whitehall to win districts last year,' Galucy said during Parkland's playoff run. 'Sometimes, the most talented teams aren't the ones that win. It's the ones that can handle adversity and fight back.'

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.'

North Penn 0000201--390
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Ruth and Albaugh; Cooperman, M. Smith (7) and Gabriel.

Parkland High School will hold a send-off celebration for its state title game-bound baseball and softball teams at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the gymnasium.

The baseball team plays at 4:30 p.m. Friday in Altoona in the PIAA 4A final while the softball team plays at noon Friday in Shippensburg in the PIAA 4A final.

- From Call staff reports