Like any high school baseball team, the Parkland Trojans spend much of the year hanging out together, putting in time in the indoor batting cages during the offseason and then banding together for a long high school season.

Unlike many of the local high school teams, though, the group is split in two for the Lehigh Valley Legion baseball season. The one, tight-knit team is divided between North Parkland and South Parkland. Twice each LVL season, and often in the playoffs, they go up against each other.

Players who are cheering each other on and spend the high school season celebrating the fact that they’re all on one team are suddenly facing each other in LVL games.

Last season, North Parkland won both meetings and had definite bragging rights. That bragging is going to come right back at them this year, since South Parkland swept the two 2019 regular season games.

“They really enjoy it and they don’t talk trash, but they talk to each other on the field,” said South Parkland coach Tom Kahn. “To me, it’s a friendly rivalry and it’s not the harsh rivalry that some people may think. When we’re out, I root for them if they’re still playing and we wish them well when they’re not playing us.”

In the most recent game, won by South Parkland 6-4, A.J. Palumbo was hit by a pitch by Buffaloes starter Collin Duff and instead of having harsh words for Duff, smiled and asked “what did I ever do to you?”

That exchange symbolized the type of banter that the two teams get engaged in during the game.

Alex Oliver pitched 1 2/3 innings in the game and admitted that it’s a little tough. As for how he goes about it, he just pitches how he would normally pitch and definitely doesn’t worry about pitching inside or even hitting a batter with a pitch.

“It’s hard to keep a straight face, especially with some of the guys up there,” admitted Oliver. “I definitely don’t worry about that [hitting batters], except for one kid; Mooch [Austin] Imler. I don’t want to hit him.”

North Parkland’s Jared Kucharczuk had a sacrifice fly, an RBI double and scored a run in the game and wasn’t happy to be on the losing end of the score.

“It’s almost like we’re at practice, but when the scoreboard is on and we’re playing, the competition really comes on,” Kucharczuk admitted. “It gets to you more than some of the other games, because it’s fun playing, except when you’re on the losing end, it gets tough.

“There’s a little bit of bragging rights between us and you definitely don’t want to have to face that. If they go undefeated this season, it’s going to be tough. We beat them twice last season, but then lost to them in the playoffs. It’s nice to see them do well, but that’s only when they’re playing other teams.”

Both teams are having good seasons and it’s not at all out of the question that the two teams could meet in the LVL playoffs in a few weeks. Some believe the league could come down to the two Parkland teams fighting for the league championship, or at least having to knock the other team off to reach the championship. Players from both teams take the game seriously, but also can’t put aside the memories that they’ve built playing side-by-side since well before high school.

“It’s competition and we love it,” said Kahn. “We compete and they compete and we both want to win, that’s for sure.”