For the Lady Trojans, the quarterfinal round of districts was a breeze as they quickly dispatched Pleasant Valley 11-0 to advance to the finals. The win took Parkland closer to winning its first district championship since 2019 and set up a semifinal game against Whitehall, who the Lady Trojans defeated that season in the championship game.

The quarterfinal game was the last of the season for Parkland on its home field and the bats and the pitching all came together for the win over the Lady Bears.

Ashlyn Hillanbrand threw four shutout innings, allowing just one hit, a single to Jovi Valenzuela in the second. Hillanbrand did surrender five walks and there was one Parkland error as Pleasant Valley tried repeatedly to rally but was always cut short.

At the plate, Parkland started hitting just one out into the bottom of the first inning. Allison Hunsberger singled to left center and one out later, Shana Gugliandolo advanced her to third with a base hit. Evelyn Montone singled to drive in a run and went to second when a play was made on Montone, who advanced to third on the hit.

Brenna Zavecz drove in her first of three runs with an RBI single and Parkland went up 2-0.

The Parkland bats got even hotter in the second against starter Kailyn Getz.

To open the inning, the first 10 hitters reached base either with a single, walk or a fielder’s choice. Nine of those base runners came around to score. Hunsberger drove in two runs with a single to left and after Parkland reloaded the bases, Zavecz capped her day with a hard-hit ground ball that rolled deep into right center field, bringing in two more runs. An RBI single from Lucia Ruimy and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Morgan Schultz-Stuardi made it 9-0 before Jenna Piatkiewicz hit a long fly ball into the right center field gap to bring in the final two runs for the Lady Trojans.

“We were up by quite a bit, but not enough,” said Piatkiewicz about her second inning at-bat. “I knew we had to get more runs if we wanted to secure the win, so I just went up with the attitude that I wanted to make something happen and was able to make good contact.”

Hillanbrand gave up a walk and a single in the second and with two outs, loaded the bases with a walk to Eve Kratzer before she came back to strikeout Allison Borger for the final out in the inning.

At that point, Parkland head coach Barry Search made wholesale changes to the lineup, sending up four pinch-hitters in the third inning and then adding four other role players to the lineup with defensive changes for the bottom of the inning.

Hillanbrand got the new players into the game as she got a groundout, line out and a pop out to put the Lady Bears down in order in the third. Pleasant Valley was hoping to make its season last a little longer in the top of the fifth as an error and a walk put runners on first and second with nobody out. One out later, another walk loaded the bags, but a double-play grounder ended the inning

Parkland put runners on first and second with nobody out in the fourth, but reliever Maddie Dorshimer was able to work her way out of the jam to keep Parkland from doing any further damage.

Hillanbrand continued her shutout by retiring Pleasant Valley without much trouble in the fifth to give Parkland the win by the 10-run rule.

“We have been playing a lot better and every game we get stronger in the field and even mentally,” said Piatkeiwicz. “We always have fun in the dugout and that has been a big part of it, just being relaxed out there.”