Parkland High School Baseball

The Parkland Trojans clinched a spot in the Lehigh Valley Conference tournament with a convincing win over Nazareth by a score of 15-0 in a three inning, mercy-rule shortened game.  Prior to the game, the Trojans celebrated "Youth Night" with numerous local youth ball players joining the players on the field for the National Anthem. 

Pitcher Gabe Mosser had a short night of work, needing only three innings on the mound to get the win, thanks to Parkland hitters that put four runs on the board in the first inning of play and followed that with six runs in the second inning, and five runs in the third inning.  Mosser needed only 38 pitches to record the nine outs, allowing only one base hit, no walks, and struck out five.

After Brad Vasilik (2-for-2, 2 runs) scored Parkland's first run on a fielders choice off the bat of Damin Muth (1-for-2, 2 RBI), Zack Merkle (1-for-1, double, BB, 2 runs, 2 RBI) drove a ball to deep left field for a double that plated two more runs for the early 3-0 lead.  Adam Schneck (1-for-2, RBI) then singled to score Merkle to make it 4-0.  Consecutive singles by Vasilik, Nate Case (1-for-1, 2 runs, BB), and Muth to start the second inning scored Parkland's fifth run.  The next two batters continued the trend with a single by Tyler Graeff (1-for-1, 2 runs, BB) and then a 2-RBI single by Chris Rabasco (1-for-3, 2 runs, 3 RBI) gave Parkland a 7-0 lead.  A Nazareth error and wild pitch allowed three more runs to score in the inning.  Parkland ended the game in the bottom of the 3rd inning when they batted around to score five more runs.  Connor Higgins (1-for-1, RBI) drove in a run with an infield single, Alex Flynn had an RBI base on ball, and Ryan Dumbach (2-for-2, RBI) had two hits in the inning, including the game-ending single that plated the 15th run. 

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The Parkland Trojans bats finally came alive tonight against Central Catholic, pounding out 17 hits for a 12-2 win in a 5-inning mercy-rule shortened game at Limeport Stadium.  Everyone in Parkland's starting lineup had at least one hit, while six players enjoyed a multi-hit game. 

After a scoreless 1st inning, Parkland put four runs on the board in the top half of the 2nd inning for a 4-0 lead.  The Trojans got six hits in the inning, all singles, five of them consecutively.  Adam Schneck (1-for-4, R) got things going with a single, then after the next batter recorded an out, the next five Parkland hitters each singled; Jordan Jones (3-for-4, 2 R, RBI) drove the first run in with his single, Nate Case (1-for-2, 2 BB, R, 2 RBI) singled, Aidan Flynn (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI) drove in the second run with his single, Brad Vasilik (3-for-4, R, RBI) singled, then Damin Muth (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI) drove in the third run with his single.  Tyler Graeff (2-for-3, double, 2-run HR, R, 3 RBI) then hit a sacrifice fly for the fourth run of the inning. 

The Trojans added six runs in the 4th inning to extend their lead to 11-0.  Muth, Vasilik, and Flynn each had RBI singles, Case an RBI base on balls, and Graeff put an exclamation point on the inning with a shot over the left-center fence for a 2-run homerun.  Zack Merkle (1-for-2, 2 R, 2 HBP) and Chris Rabasco (2-for-4, 2 R) rounded out Parkland's offensive attack.  Parkland added a single run in the 3rd inning on a Central Catholic error that scored Merkle who had reached base on a single, and added a single run in the 5th inning when Rabasco scored on another RBI walk by Case.

On the mound, Tyler Duff had another strong outing, pitching all five innings for the complete game win.  Duff was perfect through three innings of work before Central Catholic scored two runs (one earned) in the fourth inning.  Duff only allowed two hits and walked one batter, while striking out seven.

Jeff Strisovsky (4 IP, 4 K, 3 runners, 59 pitches) and Isaac Neal (2 IP, 1 runner, 16 pitches) combined for a six inning, no hit shutout of Central Catholic, 10-0. They allowed only four base runners in the game.

The Trojans batted around and scored eight in the third and ended the game with two in the sixth. CF Alec Bartholomew (1-2, 2 runs, 1 RBI) and 1B Tommy Sather (1-3, 1 run, 2 RBI) both reached on Central errors. 2B Tyler Bruno (0-1, sac) advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt. P Strisovsky (1-1, HBP) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. He was replaced by Andrew Roth as a courtesy runner. RF Neal (2-3, 1 run, 1 RBI) hit an RBI single to left. DH Tanner Stufflet (0-1, 1 run, 1 RBI) walked to force in a run. LF Evan McAndrew (0-1, SF, 1RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Roth.

C Dan Zaccaro (1-2, 1 run, 1 RBI) singled, scoring Neal. 3B Harrison Rabenold (1-3, 1 run, 1 RBI) singled, scoring Stufflet. Bartholomew singled to score courtesy runner John Amato. Sather singled to score Rabenold and Bartholomew.

In the sixth, 2B AJ Konya (0-1, 1 walk, 1 run) led off with a walk and RF Roth (2-2, 2 runs) singled to left. DH Jarod Afflerbach (1-2, 1 RBI) plated Konya with a single. LF Ben Trinkle (0-0, 2 walks) walked to load the bases. C Kyle Friebolin (0-2) hit one to the Central 3B that he couldn't handle for the game-ended.