By Michael Blouse | Freelance Writer | Special to The Morning Call

SCRANTON — Kurt Weber informed his team that they'd be departing Parkland High School at 6:30 a.m. Friday for a long trip, and if all went well, a long day of baseball.

"We expected to hear grumbles," Weber said. "There were no grumbles. They were like, ‘OK, let's go.' We've been a pretty resilient team."

And now, the Trojans are resilient champions — thanks to a strong pitching performance from Adam Smith and lots of timely offense.

Second-seeded Parkland knocked off No. 1 Easton 8-0 to clinch the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship almost eight hours after the Trojans tamed Stroudsburg 8-3 in the semifinals.

Friday's EPC tripleheader was held at the University of Scranton's Charles J. Volpe Family Field, with the first of two semifinals starting at 9 a.m. and the championship game ending at 4:30 p.m. Conference officials opted to shift the semifinals and finals from Easton's Hackett Park to the six-week-old Scranton site after heavy rains postponed play for three consecutive days.

After Parkland topped Stroudsburg in the opener, players refocused and refueled while watching Easton eliminate Emmaus in the second semifinal. Then, Weber and the Trojans sent out Smith to square off against the EPC's other all-star pitcher — Easton's Eddie Olsen.

Smith stymied the Red Rovers for six innings, scattering four hits — three singles — and two walks. The junior struck out five.

Koby Staivecki entered in the bottom of the seventh inning and induced three groundouts to close out Parkland's second straight conference championship and its fourth in five years.

"Going into it, obviously they're a really good team so there were some nerves," Smith said. "But after an inning, we settled in and it was just another game.

"I was able to locate my fastball pretty well today. My curveball felt pretty good, too. I used it to try to keep them off balance. And the defense made all the plays to help me out."

Parkland (19-3) struck for two quick runs in the top of the second inning. Olsen walked William Algard and then hit Dylan Miller to ignite the Trojan rally. Matthew Ervolina scored both runners with a line-drive double into the left-center field alley.

A three-hit third inning produced another two runs for Parkland. Jeremy Piatkiewicz contributed an RBI single to the rally.

The Trojans scored another run in the fourth frame and three more in the sixth. Cullan Wadsworth went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Ervolina and Piatkiewicz collected two hits apiece, while Miller and Joseph Weber scored two runs each.

Easton's Chris Hess had two hits. The Red Rovers played without EPC co-MVP Cam Hubbard, who is out indefinitely with an injury.

"Every time there were guys on base we did our jobs," said Wadsworth, one of five senior starters in the lineup. "We kept scratching out runs throughout the game."

The story, though, was the combined pitching performances of Smith and Staivecki. They were in top form while Easton's Olsen struggled in the second and third innings.

"The No. 1 thing about Adam is he doesn't get rattled and he's very, very consistent," Weber said. "He's going to give you this type of effort every time he goes out."

"He did a great job," Easton coach Carm LaDuca said of Smith. "He hit the corners; he was efficient and effective. I was very impressed." LaDuca praised Parkland and offered no excuses after the long trip and long day.

"We're not going to use that as any excuse. Parkland had to play two games, too," he said. "Give Parkland credit, they came out ready to play and we didn't make some plays we needed to make. Quite frankly, we didn't look like a 19-2 team. No excuses. Parkland deserved to win the baseball game."

For Parkland, which earned the top seed for the upcoming District 11 Class 6A tournament, the win was especially satisfying after a long week of waiting out the weather.

Easton (19-3) will be seeded second.

"It was very annoying," Wadsworth said of the postponements. "We were always ready to play, then we'd find out it was cancelled. It was frustrating but it made us, I think, come out with a little more fire today."

By Stephen Miller | The Morning Call
Photo courtesy of April Gamez | The Morning Call

Eddie Olsen and Kellan Tulio forced a succession of hitters back to their dugouts shaking their heads.

Olsen gave Emmaus nothing for free. That set the senior right-hander apart Tuesday afternoon.

Olsen walked no one while striking out 11 Green Hornets over 5 2/3 innings. Easton, meanwhile, capitalized on Tulio's bouts of wildness to collect a 5-3 EPC interdivisional baseball win at Richards Field.

The victory solidified the Red Rovers (12-1 overall, 11-1 EPC) as the frontrunner for the EPC tournament's top seed. They have ripped off 10 straight wins, nine in the EPC, since a 4-1 loss to Freedom on April 10.

Easton has won most of its games with a relentless lineup. It entered Tuesday averaging 11.6 runs per game. It had scored at least eight runs in all but one game.

The Red Rovers managed only three hits Tuesday, two against Tulio. They turned them into four of their runs, taking advantage of the baserunners Tulio allowed via walks (five) and hit batters (three).

"We've had that discussion, that we were going to face some very good teams this week, starting with Emmaus," Easton coach Carm LaDuca said. "We know Emmaus is for real. Their pitcher was fantastic, one of the best around.

"We knew we would have to face them in a tough situation, and to get some key, clutch hits in some big spots against great pitching, and to actually hold that team down hitting-wise, Eddie did a great job."

Luke Storm and Cole Heitzman delivered Easton's needed hits. Storm rapped a two-run, opposite-field single in the first to put the Red Rovers in front to stay.

Emmaus had clawed within 3-2 after an RBI double by Tulio (two hits, two RBIs) and an RBI single by Adam LeMaster in the top of the sixth. Heitzman answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-out, two-run double off Jude Negron. Heitzman's hit came after Tulio (5 2/3 innings, 11 strikeouts) had hit a batter and issued his final walk, both with two outs.

Olsen kept Emmaus in check with his control. He retired the leadoff hitter in each of his first five innings and didn't allow a runner past second base until the sixth.

"Coming out here, home field, everything mechanically felt good," Olsen said. "I just felt great throughout the whole day." Easton has three more games over the next four days after playing Monday and Tuesday. The Red Rovers have ample reason to feel good about their trajectory despite their schedule challenges.

"Our confidence, we're getting in teams' heads right from the start," Storm said. "We're putting up runs early, and that's really helping us."