Parkland finished a near perfect season last week at Penn State when it downed Cumberland Valley 4-3 to become PIAA softball champions for the fifth time in the school's history.

Sophomore Aubree Fritzinger threw a complete game and senior Madi Marshall drove in two first-inning runs to help lead the Lady Trojans, who finished the season 28-1.

Parkland started early when Taylor Knappenberger led off the bottom of the first with a bloop single and moved to second when Abby Fritzinger was hit by a pitch.

Emma Varrato advanced both runners with a groundball to first just ahead of a two-run single by Marshall, who was thrown out at second trying to advance on a throw to the plate.

The top of the fourth became a very interesting inning for Parkland and could have shattered the Trojans' hope of a state championship if not for their strong composure.

With one out, Cumberland Valley's Alexa Erney lined a shot to left field that easily cleared the fence and bounced off the scoreboard for a solo home run, cutting Parkland's lead to 2-1. Alison Noga followed with a base hit and quickly stole second before advancing to third on a passed ball. Just about the time that Noga reached base, it began to rain and the intensity of the rain picked up minute-by-minute. The umpires and PIAA officials decided to play through the rain and Taylor Haupt doubled to tie the game at 2-2. The next batter Liz Scott, walked and as the rain became a near sheet of water, the game was finally delayed.

"The ball was wet, I kept slipping in the ground and all the other girls were having trouble seeing the ball when it was thrown," admitted Fritzinger. "We were all in it and we knew at some point, we were going to be able to come back."

After a 25-minute delay, the teams took the field with the go-ahead run on third and two outs. Fritzinger showed that she wasn't going to let rain or the difficult situation she was in deter her and she came back to strike out Shelby Mumma for the final out of the inning.

The Trojans offense struck right back in the bottom of the inning when Chelsea Morgan led off by lining a drive off the glove of shortstop Kara Holtzman. Sam Pickar dropped the second of her near-perfect sacrifice bunts on the day and Sydney Stibitz followed with a fly ball to left that also ticked off the glove of left fielder Mumma. Morgan never broke stride in her dash to the plate and was able to slide beneath the tag to put Parkland back on top 3-2.

"I knew it was going to be close, but once I saw the ball pop out of her glove, I was just going all the way," said Morgan, as she clutched her gold medal. "I just slid and thought I got in there and then saw the umpire call me safe, it was a great feeling."

In the fifth, Fritzinger gave up back-to-back hits that along with an error, produced another run for the Eagles and again knotted the game, this time at 3-3. After the second hit, Fritzinger would go on to retire eight straight hitters, not allowing a baserunner the rest of the way.

After bunting her first two times at the plate, Pickar finally got to take a full swing and it resulted in a one-out double in the bottom of the sixth.

One out later, Kyliegh Staudt delivered a smash back to the mound that glanced off the leg of pitcher Jen Hanshaw and deflected between the shortstop and third baseman. As Morgan did earlier, Pickar dashed toward the plate and scored what would be the winning run for Parkland.

"It's awesome," said senior Marshall. "To be able to end my senior year and my softball career like this is just something I'll never forget. It was a great team win today, there were no standouts and everybody did an incredible job; it was the definition of our team this year."