SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- Things didn't end the way the Shaler Area softball team would have liked.

Shaler (16-6) made a surprising run to the PIAA Class AAAA championship game with no senior starters, but the Titans were defeated in the title clash, 5-1, today by Parkland (25-4) at Robb Field on the campus of Shippensburg University.

Parkland is a District 11 school located in Allentown.

Shaler scored in the top of the first inning, when Lauren Hackett hit a rocket, two-hopper into right and, although she was thrown out by the right fielder at first base, the play chased home Gina Goss, who led off the inning with a single.

It was all the offense Shaler would muster.

After Shaler pitcher Abby Nichter had cruised through the first two innings, Parkland got to her -- in a big way -- in the third to make it 3-1.

The Trojans scored those three runs on four hits, the heaviest blow a Kelly Muth double off the center field wall that scored two runs.

Parkland scored another run in the fifth, and then an exclamation point came in the sixth, when third baseman Jamie Motsko blasted a Nichter pitch over the center field wall for a solo home run to make it 5-1.