Tyler Graeff hit a ground ball that hit off the glove of the third baseman, and Brad Vasilik came around to score the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning for a 6-5 non-league, extra-inning win over Freedom last Thursday at Parkland High School in a battle of the unbeatens.

"We've been playing well," said sophomore Chris Rabasco. "We'd like to play a little bit better because some games that we have won have been a little bit shaky. It's definitely good to start off like this though. You don't want to start a season losing games."

The error was the third Patriots miscue in the final three innings, which erased a valiant comeback by Freedom in the seventh inning.

Trailing 3-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Parkland batted around in the inning, scoring four runs and tallying two hits, but were helped by two errors.

It did not take long for the Patriots to answer back. In the next half inning, Freedom tied the game with a three hit, two-out rally.

The Trojans had a chance to walk-off in the bottom half of the inning, but could not capitalize on a leadoff walk to Justin Jones, who made it to second after a sacrifice bunt by Adam Schneck.

Relief pitcher Tyler Duff quickly got his team back into the dugout after a 1-2-3 top of the eighth.

After a fly out to right field, Parkland had to do their damage with one out. Vasilik beat a throw on a groundball to shortstop Danny Corvino. Damin Muth followed with a base hit up the middle. Rabasco was then walked intentionally to set up a bases loaded situation for Graeff.

Not taking any chances, Graeff jumped on the first pitch by Zappas and hit a sharp ground ball that was misplayed by the third baseman, and skipped into the outfield for a walk off win.

"It was a crazy ending," said Rabasco. "I was just thinking that we didn't want to lose a game like this. Duff came in and slammed the door shut after we gave up a couple of runs."

Although the game was marked as a non-conference game, Parkland gave Freedom its first loss of the season and the Trojans now have some added motivation in the back of their minds.

"It's good to know that we can stack up against those guys," said Rabasco. "We have high expectations coming into the season, and against such a good team like them with great players, we know we can beat them now."

Parkland took a step toward being a top contender in the league with the win. These two teams will meet again in less than two weeks in a league game.

Vasilik finished 3-for-5 at the plate with a run, and Rabasco went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Gabe Mosser started on the mound for the Trojans and went five innings, giving up only two runs on five hits, and struck out five Patriots.