Pitching will win a lot of games for a team. Nowhere does pitching play a bigger role than in the postseason of Legion play. The schedule becomes very cramped, with some teams having to play five straight days. When you combine that with the innings limits that are imposed on pitchers, teams are often stretched on pitching.

That’s where South Parkland had a distinct advantage this season, thanks to a roster full of promising young pitchers. The team used eight different starters during the regular season, with five of those pitchers starting multiple games for the Trojans.

“It’s definitely a luxury,” said coach Tommy Kahn. “Late in the season and in playoffs, when games start to really stack up, it’s nice to be able to find guys who are still relatively fresh and can give you some innings.”

It’s also nice to be able to spread those innings out among a number of pitchers, helping to keep as many arms as possible fresh. Many of the pitchers threw in either high school or college games and as the weather gets hotter, many start to wear down.

Nate Leaswitch led the team with 23 innings pitched and tied with Nate Horn in complete games with two each. Edward Brandt and Michael Jenkins also threw complete games for South Parkland. Jenkins piled on some innings during the high school season and made just one start for South Parkland in the regular season before making another in the playoffs.

“Michael emerged as one of the best arms for the high school team, and it’s tempting to just ride that here, but you have to think about what’s best for him,” said Kahn. “For us, it wasn’t a real concern, because we have other pitchers who can throw and give us innings, so we played him more in the field to keep his bat in the lineup and just used him when we needed him on the mound.”

One of the key pitchers for South Parkland was Harrison Rabenold, who was hampered by a bad knee late in the year, limiting his time on the mound.

Kahn had Rabenold playing first base late in the playoffs to keep his bat in the lineup and not cause too much more wear and tear on his knee.

As a staff, South Parkland compiled a team ERA of 3.22, which when you combine that with a team batting average of .346, you have a recipe for a lot of wins. Leaswitch, who attends Central Catholic, is a perfect example of the offense helping out the pitching staff.

While his season ERA of 4.57 may have been a little high, Leaswitch was a perfect 3-0 on the mound thanks to a potent offensive line-up behind him.

“Our pitchers know that they don’t have to be perfect, because we’re going to score some runs,” said Kahn “And, our offense knows that we have pitchers who will keep us in the game, so we don’t have to depend on scoring a lot of runs to win a game.”

The combination of pitching and offense worked to perfection for South Parkland, with one small hiccup that interrupted their search for a spot in regionals: errors.

Defense let the Trojans down in key spots against Northern Valley in the two championship games, leading to losses and the end of the season for South Parkland.

“That’s one thing that’s always tough to get past, are errors,” said Kahn. “As good as the pitching has been, as good as our offense has been, when you start kicking the ball around, things can go bad pretty fast.”