In the first meeting between the North and South Parkland Lehigh Valley Legion baseball teams, South Parkland prevailed with a 9-1 win back on June 15. The win put the Trojans at 7-0 on the season and since then they had put together two more wins to reach 9-0 coming into the showdown with North Parkland last week.

For their part, the Buffaloes followed up their earlier loss to South Parkland with a loss to Lower Macungie, but then put together an impressive 11-2 win over Emmaus, leaving them ready for their counterparts from the south.

The second meeting between the two teams started as a slug-fest and ended in a pitcher’s duel, with South Parkland remaining undefeated thanks to a 6-4 win, reaching the 10-0 mark.

The teams swapped first-inning runs and North Parkland added a second-inning run that started with Chris Lessel reaching on an error with two outs in the inning. A passed ball put Lessel in scoring position and Phil Schoch took advantage of the miscues to drive in Lessel with a base-hit to center, putting the Buffaloes up 2-1.

“We got a little nervous when they scored that first-inning run,” said South Parkland head coach Tom Kahn. “But we came right back and then we had to come back again in the second inning. We got what we needed and kept coming back.”

South Parkland did come right back in the bottom of the second when A.J. Palumbo was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with one out. Joe Webber then singled to drive in the tying run and Gabe Stay followed with a single to left to put the Trojans up 3-2.

One out later, a North Parkland error allowed two runs to score and push the South lead to 5-2, which proved to not be a safe enough lead.

North Parkland wasn’t daunted by being three runs down and simply went back to work in the top of the third. After Austin Imler singled to lead-off the inning, Jared Kucharczuk took the first pitch he saw and laced it into left field for a base-hit with Imler crossing the plate. Dylan Snyder followed with a single and Luke Dauberman hit a fly ball to left that was deep enough to score Kucharczuk, making it a 5-4 game. North Parkland had runners on the corners, but courtesy runner Eric Terrano was thrown out attempting to steal second to end the inning.

Two errors in the bottom of the third led to another South Parkland run, putting the Trojans up 6-4.

At that point, the pitching staffs took over. North Parkland’s Collin Duff allowed just two singles and didn’t walk a batter the rest of the way. A double-play ground ball erased one of the hits.

“He pitched a good game,” said North Parkland coach Terry Stoudt of Duff’s outing. “Our defense didn’t help him too much, but he made some good pitches and he kept us in the game.”

For South Parkland, starter Adam Smith gave way to Adam Mellinger to start the sixth inning. Mellinger struck out the first hitter in the sixth, but walked Sean Brosious and departed in favor of Alex Oliver, who issued two wild pitches in the inning, but got a strikeout and a grounder back to the mound to get away unscathed.

Oliver also issued a walk and a wild pitch in the seventh, but kept North Parkland off the board.

“It was definitely a big win,” said Kahn. “Adam [Smith] didn’t have his best stuff today. He hasn’t thrown in a little while, but he’ll get back on track. He’s one of the top pitchers in the state and one of the best around here. He wants to throw more heading into the playoffs, so we’ll give him that chance.”

Both teams picked up wins in their only game since the Parkland showdown.

North Parkland beat the Carbon Monarchs 9-2 behind three hits and three RBI from Kucharczuk to go with six strong innings from Schoch, who finished with eight strikeouts.

The Trojans pounded Allentown 19-1. Matt Ervolina and Oliver each had three hits and two RBI in the game, with Ervolina crossing the plate five times and Oliver scoring three times. Parker Schwartz came off the bench to collect a team-high three RBIs and Stay scored four runs in the game.