So. Parkland rallies, holds off Monarchs

When you’re playing the best team in the league, handing them extra opportunities is not the game plan you want to go with. Unfortunately, the Carbon Monarchs committed four errors Tuesday in a 6-4 loss to undefeated South Parkland. The errors led to all six of the Trojans runs being unearned.

Coach Donnie Rehrig wasn’t happy about his team’s defense, but was quick to point out that there were some positives for the squad. “We saw their top four pitchers in this game, so that shows that they knew they had to bring their best against us after the way we played them the first time this season,” he said.

After South Parkland scored a first inning run on a double, a stolen base and a throwing error, Carbon came right back in the top of the second against Koby Staivecki, who came on after Adam Mellinger pitched one inning for the Trojans. Jared Marykwas and Wyatt Zimmerman drew two-out walks, and Drew Frank drove home courtesy runner David Berger to tie the game.

Parkland made it 2-1 in the bottom of the second and stretched it to 4-1 in the fourth against Marykwas, who was victimized by the poor fielding.

“He really pitched a great game today,” said Rehrig of Marykwas’ outing. “He threw strikes and kept a really good hitting team pretty much in check. There’s no doubt that he gave us a chance to win this game today, we just didn’t help him defensively or at the plate.”

The Monarchs put together enough offense to score three runs off Staivecki in the top of the fifth. Frank started the rally with a leadoff single and Noah Snisky followed with a walk. Carbon cut it to 4-2 when Brad Buzzard doubled to center to score Frank and put runners on second and third. One out later, the lead was down to one when Ian Hubbard lined a single to center and Mason Barndt followed with a sacrifice fly to left to tie the game at 4-4.

South Parkland threatened in the fifth, putting runners on first and second, but Marykwas got Parker Schwartz to ground out to second to end the inning. In the sixth, the Trojans got a leadoff single from Matt Gibbons and one out later, an error by Frank put runners on second and third. A walk loaded the bases and Alex Oliver singled to drive in Gibbons and a ground ball by Trent Viola brought home another run to make it 6-4 in favor of South Parkland.

If the Trojans thought Carbon would go quietly in the seventh against reliever Adam Smith, they were wrong. Hubbard and Barndt led off with singles before Smith got Jared Joyce to swing through a third strike. Anthony Palumbo then came on to pitch and strick out Marykwas before Zimmerman grounded out to end the game.

“I would still take these guys against anybody,” said Rehrig. “We were without a few guys today, which I never use as an excuse, and we still played a really good team hard. I feel good about the rest of the season and the guys that I’ve got on this team the rest of the way.”

NO REST ... Thanks to rainouts earlier in the season, Carbon had nine days off. Now comes the hard part; making up all of those games. Last Saturday, the Monarchs started a stretch where they will play 11 games in 14 days, which will carry them through the rest of the LV Legion schedule. The remaining schedule is against teams with a combined 25-30-2 record and they face just two teams — Salisbury (5-4-1) and North Parkland (8-3) — with winning records. They face Salisbury twice.

FILLING THE ZONE ... Marykwas threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of the 33 batters he faced (72%). He currently ranks fourth in the LVL with a 68% first-pitch strike percentage. South Parkland’s Palumbo is second at 71%.

Carbon 010 030 0 - 4 9 4

S. Parkland 110 202 x - 6 9 0

Jar. Marykwas and Hubbard; Mellinger, Staivecki (2), Smith (6), Palumbo (7) and Giovenco, Viola (5). W - Mellinger. L - Jar. Marykwas.