Parkland baseball picked up a couple of wins this week with shutouts against both Whitehall and East Stroudsburg South. The wins put Parkland at 8-1 overall and 7-0 in the EPC.

Nikhil Patel got the start against Whitehall (4-6, 3-5) and didn’t disappoint. Patel threw five innings and gave up just two hits and a walk to go with five strikeouts and no runs allowed. With Patel cruising on the mound, the Trojans went to work offensively with a four-run fourth and three runs in each of the next two innings to finish the game with a 10-0 mercy rule win in five innings.

Blake Barthol and Austin Imler each had two hits for Parkland, while Joe Webber and Alex Oliver both drove in a pair of runs.

The storyline was much the same against East Stroudsburg South (1-9, 1-8), with Adam Smith cruising on the mound and more offense for Parkland. Smith gave up a leadoff single in each of the first two innings, but a double play erased the runner in the second. After the single to start the second inning, Smith didn’t allow a hit over the next three innings and finished the day with five innings pitched and six strikeouts in the game.

A walk and stolen base by Jeremy Piatkiewicz opened the Trojans’ half of the first inning and when Cavaliers catcher Greg Yeager muffed throwing the ball back to the pitcher, Piatkiewicz took off for third and reached safely. From there, a base hit by Barthol made it 1-0. Webber then brought home Barthol with a double to left center field.

Piatkiewicz again started things in the third by drawing a leadoff walk and Barthol reached on a bunt single ahead of the two players pulling off a double steal. Matt Ervolina then doubled to right to score two and Webber’s bloop to left put runners on first and second. Josh Miller looked to bunt the runners over, but when pitcher Christian Maccarrone slipped attempting to field the ball, the bases were left loaded. A single by Phil Schoch made it 5-0 and sacrifice flies from George Jenkins and Hani Kitabwalla pushed it to 7-0.

An error and a base hit gave Parkland runners on first and second with one out in the fifth and Kitabwalla then singled on a windblown pop-up to third to load the bases and Chris Lessel delivered a pinch-hit ground ball to force home a run.

Oliver and Miller both gave Parkland a shutout inning on the mound with both pitchers striking out two batters in the process. In all, Parkland pitchers struck out 10 batters on the day and didn’t issue a walk.

Parkland has a half-game lead over Emmaus (8-2, 7-1) and a one-and-a-half game edge over Northampton (8-2, 6-2) in the Skyline Division of the EPC. Parkland won its first meeting against both division rivals earlier this season and will face Northampton again on April 27 and will end the regular season schedule with a home game against the Green Hornets on May 4.

The Trojans host Hazleton (5-1, 2-1 Wyoming Valley) for a nonconference game this afternoon and then play at Easton (7-2, 6-1) on Saturday and at Dieruff (2-7, 2-6) next Tuesday.