The Parkland baseball team has struggled at the plate recently, swatting only 10 hits in its last three games heading into Wednesday.

The Trojans were able to capture seven hits on Tuesday at home against Freedom, but were unable to get the key hit at the right time as the Patriots defeated Parkland 3-2 and handed the Trojans their first loss in Lehigh Valley Conference play this season.

"When you only give up three runs, you should win that game," said Parkland head coach Tony Galucy.

Parkland (9-2 overall, 6-1 LVC) has been struggling offensively as of late, but still was able to secure the early victories thanks to its pitching staff as opponents have only scored 17 runs against the Trojans this season.

Wednesday's match-up featured another solid outing from a Trojan hurler as starting pitcher Connor Higgins went five-plus innings, gave up three runs, one of which was unearned, and had five strikeouts on 77 total pitches. He the loss and moved his record to 1-1 this season.

"We can't count on our pitchers to shut people out," Galucy admitted. "You should win a game like this, but to Freedom's credit, they did everything they needed to do to win this game."

Freedom (7-4, 6-2) scored all its runs in one inning. The Patriots led off the third with a single by Thomas Byrnes. The next pitch was fouled off by T.J. Czerwinski, but Parkland catcher Zach Merkle was called for catcher's interference, which granted Byrnes second base and Czerwinski first.

Junior Zak Cagnon ripped a double down the third base line on the next at-bat that drove in both Byrnes and Czerwinski to take a 2-1 lead after Parkland's Merkle scored on a passed ball in the top of the frame.

The Trojans stranded two runners in their half of the third and left the bases loaded in the fourth, but they did push one run across that inning as Merkle, who opened up the inning with a double, scored on a Justin Afflerbach sacrifice fly.

Parkland threatened once more in the game, in the sixth, as it advanced a runner to third, but a foul out and a strike out squandered that opportunity.

The Patriots were supported by a complete game win by Cagnon, who went seven innings, gave up two runs, and seven hits on 87 pitches, and worked out of jams all day stranding seven Trojans on the bases.

Parkland was hitting .288 as a team heading in to the game with Freedom, but Galucy wants to see his team manufacture some runs through discipline at the plate.

"Offensively, I want us to have quality at bats," he said. "We are more concerned about quality at bats than averages. We need to hit the ball hard, move runners, knock in runners from third base with less than two outs, get bunts down, and do whatever it takes to get on base. Doing the little things correct will lead to runs."

To hopefully spark that, the 12th-year head coach is looking to his veteran leaders.

"It was nice that we got seven hits, but when we needed the big hit today we just didn't do it," he said. "We need some of our guys to step up. It is that simple. We have guys that have been in this program for a couple years and when we have runners on, they need to step up."

Parkland visits Bethlehem Catholic on Wednesday, hosts Pleasant Valley on Saturday and visits Allen on Monday as the Trojans need only one more win to clinch a District 11 playoff berth.