Pitching carries Parkland to 5-1 win
Parkland High School baseball coach Kurt Weber says he’s still learning what he has with his pitching staff.
What he learned Tuesday in a 5-1 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Lehigh County Division win at Whitehall is that he’s got at least two guys capable of shutting down an opposing offense.
Seniors Joe Algard and Bryce Ratliff combined on a three-hitter as the Trojans won the first of two games this week with its neighboring rival. Game 2 is set for 4:30 p.m. Thursday at CocaCola Park.
Algard allowed just one hit over three innings and struck out four, but he also walked four. One of those walks came with the bases loaded in the third and allowed Owen Fischl to collect the Zephyrs’ lone RBI.
Fischl also had one of Whitehall’s hits, joining Tim Ritter and Ayden Dunbar who also singled.
But for the most part, Parkland arms shut down Whitehall in getting the team off to a 2-0 start as Ratliff worked four scoreless innings in relief. He allowed just two hits, struck out two and walked one.
“We really don’t know our pitching staff and we’re trying to learn about these guys as we go here,” Weber said. “Algard did a great job and Ratliff did the same in relief. You can’t ask anything for anything more than we got from them.”
Weber said it’s a good rivalry and Whitehall always plays his guys tough. He was just happy to get a game in on the schedule during this pandemic-plagued spring when no game can be taken for granted.
Normally, Parkland has much more than two games played at this point in the season.
“We had a little bit of a COVID issue and Liberty had a COVID issue, so we’ve been backed up a little bit,” Weber said.
“That’s why we’re still trying to figure our team out. I’m happy we’ve won two games so far but all we talk about with the kids is that we want to keep getting better every day because we don’t know how long the season will last. We try to play every game like it could be our last.”
If the season goes the distance, Parkland will be one of the teams in the mix for EPC and District 11 6A titles.
The Trojans, looking for their first title since a league championship in 2018, have all the ingredients of a quality team and their depth could pay dividends in a spring when everybody could be forced to play numerous games in a short span of time and will have to play divisional foes in a back-to-back situation.
“This is the first time we’ve ever done anything like this, playing backto-back in a mini-series,” Weber said. “It’ll be fun to see different pitchers on each team’s staff. Usually teams have an ace and they line him up for you. But now everybody is going to have to show their whole staff.”
Whitehall’s Matt Snyder worked six solid innings, giving up just two earned runs. He surrendered eight hits, walked four and struck out five.
Parkland got to him for two runs in the top of the first, getting three straight singles from Andrew Keller, Bo Barthol and Blake Barthol. After Luke Meehan hit into a double play to score one run, Jack Giovenco doubled in another.
The Trojans padded the lead to 3-0 in the top of the third on Meehan’s RBI double.
Parkland closed the scoring with a pair in the top of the seventh. Ratliff singled in a run and another scored on Sean Superka’s bases-loaded walk.
Whitehall coach Shaun O’Boyle, whose team fell to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the EPC, felt his pitching was good enough to win.
But the Zephs offense has sputtered. After opening the season with a 12-4 win over Central Catholic, Whitehall has scored just eight runs in three games.