Parkland baseball relied on pitching all season long and it never let the team down. Even with a loss in the opening round of the PIAA tournament, the pitching was there in a 2-1 loss to Spring-Ford. It was also pitching that got the Trojans into states as the District 11 champion in a 3-0 win over Stroudsburg in the District Finals.

While the Trojans staff is deep, Gabe Mosser was the ace. The senior struck out 11 Mountaineers and kept them off the board, allowing the Parkland offense to chip away at Stroudsburg starter Mike Nikorak.

"I really just rely on my defense," said Mosser after the win, which was Parkland's 20th of the season. "They made some good plays behind me."

As usual, the offense was opportunistic and took advantage of an opponent's mistake. After a strikeout/wild pitch helped to extend the inning for Parkland in the third, Andrew Roth, who entered the game as a courtesy runner, scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Alex Flynn. The run not only gave Parkland the lead, but also gave Mosser a little something to work with as he looked to get on a roll.

"Gabe didn't really have his best stuff early on," said coach Tony Galucy. "But it seemed like he really started to settle in once we got on the board and took a little pressure off. You just got the feeling that was all he would need."

Parkland, just like every other team that faced Nikorak this season, had an uphill battle against the hard-throwing junior right-hander.

In the fifth, the Trojans bought themselves some insurance and again, it came as a result of taking advantage of a Stroudsburg mistake. With runners on second and third and two out, Zach Miller hit a weak groundball toward short, but third baseman Nick King cut the ball off and tried to get the final out of the inning. Instead, King's throw sailed past first and both runners scored on the play to put the Trojans up 3-0.

With Mosser on the mound, it almost seemed like the game was over. There was a very minor speed bump in the seventh when he issued a one-out walk, but he easily got the next two hitters to send the Trojans (20-6) into the PIAA Tournament.

"You can find better offenses than ours, but you might not find one that chips away at a team better than ours does," said Galucy. "We work for every run that we get and that's how we win games. When you have the pitching that we do, you don't always need a lot."

Unfortunately, in the state tournament Parkland ran into a Spring-Ford team that is known not just for strong pitching, but for having a potent offense.

Lately, the Rams have relied more on pitching and that was the case in their 2-1 win over the Trojans. Mosser struck out nine hitters through four innings in the loss to Spring-Ford.

While Tuesday wasn't a great day on the field for the Trojans, it was a proud day off the field as five players were named to the Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup team, which will start play next week in Philadelphia.

Mosser, Chris Rabasco and Zach Merkle all made the team as seniors and will be joined by juniors Connor Higgins and Jeffrey Strisovsky. Lehigh Valley will look for its fourth championship in the tournament, which ends with the finals on June 20 at Citizens Bank Park.