The Trojans’ season came to an abrupt end Sunday at Weiland Park on the campus of De Sales University. After battling Liberty through five innings and taking a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth, the Hurricanes put up nine runs in their half of the inning and took an 11-4 win in the District 11 Class 6A baseball semifinal game.

Despite the score, it really was a much different game than when the two teams met during the regular season and Liberty beat Parkland 12-3. This time around, the two teams pulled the momentum in the game back-and-forth.

“The first time we played them I didn’t feel like we battled with them and weren’t as tough as they were, so we made a point to make sure that they understood that we were not going to be a pushover and I thought we did that,” said Parkland head coach Kurt Weber. “Unfortunately, the last inning just kind of caved in on us.”

Liberty went up 2-0 in the bottom of the second when Caleb Tereska and Jack Rothenhausler led off the inning with singles. Later in the inning, Tereska scored on an RBI single from Caleb Gross and Rothenhausler scored on a sacrifice fly from Jack Borneman off starter Adam Smith.

Rothenhausler, who got the start for Liberty, got the first two outs in the third ahead of back-to-back singles from Jeremy Piatkiewicz and Blake Barthol. Matt Ervolina hit a grounder to short and elected to try to make the unassisted putout at second, but was beaten to the bag by Barthol, loading the bases for Parkland. Joe Webber drove a ball into center field, bringing home two runs to tie the game.

In the sixth, Parkland played for one run, but got two. George Jenkins led off with a single and was bunted to second by Phil Schoch. Piatkiewicz grounded out, but moved Jenkins to third and Liberty elected to walk Barthol, who went 2-for-3 on the day. Ervolina was hit by a pitch and Webber hit a grounder to shortstop Marcus Nales, who threw in the dirt to first, bringing home Jenkins and Barthol.

Koby Staivecki had come on to get the final two outs of the fifth and opened the sixth on the mound for the Trojans, but two other pitchers would wind up working in the inning that saw 13 batters come to the plate for the Hurricanes, collecting five hits, three walks, two hit batters and a sacrifice fly. When the final out was made, Parkland was down 11-4 and the Trojans weren’t able to put anything together in the top of the seventh.

“It’s always disappointing when you don’t end on a win,” Weber said. “We played some good baseball, but maybe we peaked a little early this year. We played really well in April. We played well today, without that last inning. Once they got ahead it was pretty much over, but I thought we played well for the majority of this game.”