When opportunity knocks – open the door.

The Parkland baseball squad might not have won Publisher’s Clearing House, but the Trojans made the most of their opportunities against Pleasant Valley on Friday.

Parkland came through with timely hitting and timely defense to help it close out an important 5-4 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory over the Bears.

The Trojans got their offense going in the third and fourth innings. A hit and an RBI each from Blake Barthol and Bryce Ratliff in the third, and the same from Taiki Horiguchi and Sean Superka in the fourth got Parkland out to a 4-0 advantage. The Trojans did a nice job of moving runners over, and when their players were in scoring position, their bats were able to come up with key hits.

“We had a rough week, going on a bit of a losing streak and we’ve had some big injuries,” said Parkland head coach Kurt Weber. “Coming up here against a quality team, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But I’m real proud of our guys; they battled a good pitcher and were able to come up with timely hits for us.

“The effort was outstanding today. After the week we had, they definitely could’ve come up here and mailed it in, but they didn’t and made the plays down the stretch to win the game.”

Pleasant Valley struggled offensively through the first three innings, but was able to finally get a run across in the fourth. A sacrifice fly from Chris Frable scored Jake Gethen to make it a three-run game and the Bears bats started to come alive.

Parkland added a run in the fifth to make it a four-score game again, but Pleasant Valley then began to chip away, scoring a run in the fifth and sixth to get within 5-3. And then it made things real interesting in the seventh.

Bears’ cleanup hitter Zach Walters got his team started in the bottom of the seventh, ripping a double to right center field. Jack Smale then walked and Andrew Meitzler singled to give the Bears the bases loaded with just one out. A sacrifice fly to left from Gethen scored Walters to bring Pleasant Valley within one.

But as they did throughout the ballgame, the Trojans made plays exactly when they needed to make them. With two on and two outs, Parkland got the next Bears batter to ground out to short to end the ball game.

“Give Parkland credit, they hit the ball well early on and came through with timely hits,” said Pleasant Valley head coach TJ Murphy. “That’s something we talk about a lot with our guys and at times we’ve struggled with that this season, and then you add in playing from behind and that’s tough.

“I’m proud of the way we battled back though, we rallied there, but it just took us too long to get going tonight. We need to play with that same passion, emotion and intensity that we played with late for all seven innings. Still, proud the way we battled.”

Parkland entered the contest having lost three straight to Nazareth, Freedom and Northampton.

Parkland improved to 13-4 and was the No. 2 ranked team in District 11 Class 6A after the win over the Bears, while PV dropped to 12-4 and was positioned at No. 3.